The debate rages over whether Avatar performance capture is true performance for the Oscars and other awards. Cameron’s actors had to work hard to make Avatar action look real, but it wasn’t enough to impress the Screen Actors Guild, which didn’t even nominate AVATAR actors this year. Maybe SAG is just worried that the increasing use of CGI will put human actors out of work, but to be fair, the most-threatened jobs may in fact be makeup artists and costumers.

And still… though Avatar has been nominated for numerous awards, and won several already, its stars have been pretty much ignored by Hollywood. “I don’t think they understand that we don’t embellish or make up portions” said James Cameron, referring to critics. He feels that Zoe Saldana, seen in the film only in computer-rendered Na’vi form, is especially worthy. And she did it all in a blank room.

Sasha Stone of Awards Daily isn’t buying it: “I appreciate [the] sentiment but what we saw with Saldana was [an] unprecedented combination of technology and performance capture-but in the traditional sense, it is not acting… Zoe Saldana makes for a moving and beautiful Avatar-one of the most memorable characters of the year. But no can say for sure that it is 100% her and not this beautiful technology along with it.”

Regardless, AVATAR remains heavily favored for the best-picture Oscar, especially since many Academy Awards voters are from more technical disciplines than acting.

What do you think – are Zoe and Sam acting or is technology doing the magic? Are they worthy of a Best Acting Oscar?