While most of the film blogosphere is wondering why Sony hasn’t yet greenlit a District 9 sequel, our old friends at the Oscar blogs are addressing a potential awards campaign for the sci-fi hit. According to Peter Bart at Variety, an Academy screening of the film over the weekend was very well received (best applause in years? come on), and the news has sparked buzz of a possible Best Picture nod. After all, there are ten available slots this year.

Honestly, I enjoyed the movie very much, but if it’s being considered Oscar-worthy, I’ll be the first to begin the backlash (against the awards push; Armond White already took care of the general backlash). District 9 shouldn’t be nominated for Best Picture any more than Star Trek should. It shouldn’t even be nominated any more than Transformers 2 should. Regardless of how much better it may be.

And I don’t necessarily have anything against a sci-fi movie being up for the award. If Cameron’s Avatar is groundbreaking and brilliant, give it a nomination. I just want to make it clear that District 9 is very good, but it is not that good. And just saying that it deserves an Oscar campaign adds to the continued depreciation of the Academy Awards.

Read what other film bloggers are saying about the District 9 Oscar buzz after the jump:

• Graeme McMillan at io9 thinks it’s too soon to be Oscar-buzzing about D9:
  

  It’s not even been released for a week, and already, people are talking about how District 9 is going to be robbed of the Oscars it apparently so richly deserves. What is going on?

• Tom O’Neil at Gold Derby, having already recently addressed the Academy’s sci-fi curse in relation to D9’s chances, can’t believe the buzz:
  

  Perhaps it sounds outlandish — maybe even as wacky as the story of reptilian aliens lustily devouring cat food while being imprisoned by humans in “District 9” — but Variety reports that Oscar voters are gobbling up the hit sci-fi flick. They’ve only endorsed a few in the past (”Star Wars,” “E.T.”). Now Variety’s Peter Bart reveals a “dirty little secret” — asserting “‘District 9‘ is an absolutely brilliant movie that could easily sneak away with some Oscars.”

• Sasha Stone at Awards Daily is doubtful that applause is a gateway to kudos:
  

  Not necessarily; Academy members are people too.  Just because they were entertained and loved the movie doesn’t mean that they’ll consider it as a Best Pic contender…is this Variety trying harder to get into the Oscar game in order to get those Oscar ads flowing?  Finally, is it unethical of Bart to talk the Oscar talk if he is a member?  Does that influence the vote?

• Kristopher Tapley at In Contention claims Academy screening applause can be a gauge for Oscar potential. He goes on to speculate on D9’s nomination possibilities:
  

  I have a friend, AMPAS member, who always says you can place a smart bet on a film’s Oscar chances across the board based on the way applause ebbs and flows during the closing credits…Maybe something like an original screenplay nomination could be in the cards?  Or — hey, there are 10 — a Best Picture berth?  In a perfect world, Sharlto Copley would be in the BEst Actor running, but let’s not get carried away.

• Tambay at Shadow and Act also weighs in on which categories are within D9’s reach:
  

  At best, maybe Best Original Screenplay? Although, director Neill Blomkamp himself stated that there really wasn’t even a screenplay written for the film – more like an outline of events which were filled in while on set, in order to reflect the kind of realism we see in the end product. What else? Special Effects? I think we’ve seen, and will likely see, better effects work in other effects-laden films this year. Best Director? Best Picture? Best Actor? Can’t see it in any of those either.

• S.T. VanAirsdale at Movieline points out that D9 could help its studio get back on the Academy’s map:
  

  Sony hasn’t had a Best Picture nominee since 1997, when TriStar pushed As Good as it Gets into contention. On the other hand, it has no real potential horses in the field unless Julie and Julia manages some word-of-mouth streak deep into fall — which it won’t. So what’s the worst that can happen? If the studio could market an inexpensive genre thriller to such lofty highs, who wouldn’t want to see how it sells aliens to Oscar?

• Anne Thompson at Thompson on Hollywood was already wondering about Oscar chances for D9 in yesterday’s box office report:
  

  Not so sure how the Academy will handle District 9, which will be on many film critics’ ten best lists at year’s end. But it’s an intense genre thriller. Maybe VFX and some technicals. Neill Blomkamp is an outsider. LOTR Oscar-winner Peter Jackson, who made the film possible, is not.

• 2morrowKnight at 2morrowKnight’s Awesome Blog was already predicting D9 for the Best Picture win, let alone nomination, last week. Could he be joking? I hope so given this excerpt:
  

  Right now, I believe it’s the front-runner for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Sure, a movie like this doesn’t usually get any Oscar-love. After all, classics like Remember the Titans (1998), The Matrix (1999), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), Mona Lisa Smile (2003), and Spider Man 2 (2004) weren’t nominated for Best Picture.