Why Life of Pi should win Best Picture

Life of Pi is not a favorite to win the Oscars Best Picture, although it has a good chance of winning for best cinematography, music score and visual effects - and if
the industry has some sense, for best director also because there is no better director today than Ang Lee (of Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger fame).

Argo is the favorite to win best picture although Ben Affleck is not nominated for best director - and not many films have won best picture without the best director nomination. Besides, it's a thriller and do thrillers win Oscars? The only thing going for Argo is that it has won a bunch of reputed awards, including the Golden Globe, leading up to the Oscars. Also, Argo and Lincoln are based on historical events and hence don't strictly meet the originality requirement from my Film Pyramid. After all, the story and events in the screenplay have already been chalked out by history, so where is the originality?

But the reason Life of Pi should win Best Picture (and Best Director) is not even related to the competition. And it's not just the fact that Life of Pi is the best in Originality, Story, Cinematography, Music and VFX (the top layers in the pyramid). The fact that the novel it was based on (of the same name, Yann Martel's Booker Prize winning book) was deemed unfilmable for almost a decade. Most of the movie is set on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean with just the hero and a Bengal tiger in it (Director's nightmare). Ang Lee managed the impossible with this film, and in my opinion, has not just made a stupendous film, but the film of the century! In other words, it should win the "Oscar or Oscars" Period.