I know too little about the Oscars to give my opinion about it. The only thing I would say is that if a movie is awarded "Best Picture", "Best Director" "Best Actor" or "Best Actress", it must be a good movie, a worth-watching movie.
Here, we have the Cesars, which happen to be 2 days before the Oscars (Oscars are on Sunday, Cesars are on Friday) and my opinion about it is that it is too elitist, the awards usullay go to movie that have been acclaimed by the critics but that did not drawn many people in theaters.
This year, the movie that got the most award was Timbuktu (wich was nominated for Best Foreign Picture at your Oscars).