These Oscar Nominees Recognize the Value of Education

This year, we’re hoping the Oscar (or Oscars) go to … movies and celebrities that support the idea of education, lifelong learning, and pursuing new careers.

Here are four films and nominees who are already winners to us (we’ll find out who wins during the Academy Awards on Feb. 26).

1. “Moneyball”: The Yale-educated economic graduate played by Jonah Hill helped change up the way of analyzing players by using statistics instead of traditional means used by the Oakland A’s and other teams, in this film nominated for Best Picture. (Hill and Brad Pitt are pictured here with their award from the 23rd Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala.)

2: “Hugo”: Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese — also a nominee this year — earned his film degree from New York University in 1964. He also earned his master’s of fine arts there and taught there (students included future director Oliver Stone).

3. “The Help”: In this Best Picture-nominated film, a Southern society girl (played by Emma Stone) who aspires to be an author writes a book in the 1960s sharing African-American maids’ truth about their white employers and lives. It also causes one maid, Aibeleen (played by Oscar nominee Viola Davis, pictured here), to look to her new future as a writer, too. By the way, Davis graduated from Rhode Island College in 1988 with a theater degree and she received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from the college in 2002.

4. “The Descendants”: Oscar-nominated George Clooney may be getting a lot of the attention on the red carpet, but we give applause to Oscar-nominated director Alexander Payne, who earned his bachelor’s degree in history and Spanish literature from Stanford University in 1983 and went on to earn his masters of fine arts from UCLA, in 1990. (Both are pictured here with their Directors Guild of America award.)