Yeah, not much screen for Serkis' actual face...then again, in Avatar the CGI was a much better actor than Keanu 2.

@Caveman, I firmly believe the two reasons why McKellan didn't win is because the biopic was about a fantasy genre film director, which is why I include. Also, because the character portrayed and the actor were both homosexual, which illustrates the hypocrisy of hollywood. Hollywood is so biased against anything in the fantasy/sci fi genre.

Here's another snub that comes to mind, Willem Dafoe should have won over Benicio del Toro for Shadow of the Vampire. Dafoe's acting performance over del Toro's wasn't even close.

I don't believe that there will ever be a motion capture award; fantasy/sci fi genre films are the ones that use the technique and the Oscars loathe these types of movies. Also, this isn't used widely enough in movies to warrant inclusion. This doesn't detract in anyway Serkis's ability to bring a character to life using this technique.
 

I don't understand why Keanu has a career as an actor.  He's not that good.  Why is he a star when much better actors scrounge for roles?

I don't know Darth Bob.  Can you imagine a movie where a modern actress is motion captured as, say, Marilyn Monroe playing a character in a non genre film?  The limits of this technology haven't begun to be scratched.

I don't really count Keanu Reeves as a bonafide "star."  He's had two films/franchises that were monumental commercial successes, and a very good argument could be made that The Matrix would've been just fine without him.  He hasn't really ever cashed in from either of his true successes, so I wouldn't say he's a bankable star the way Bruce Willis, Dwayne Johnson, Tom Cruise, or Hugh Jackman are.

I think Silence of the Lambs kinda beat the odds when it won best picture ... it wasn't an arty movie and was released quite early in the calendar year. A good win!

Keanu Reeves has played the main role in many films.  Aside from The Matrix films he did the Speed movies and Constantine, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Point Break and many others.  If his name is on the movie poster he's a star of the film.

@karas, CGI will only continue to get better and at some point make motion capture obsolete.  You will not need a motion capture actor potrayal to get a realistic CGI character on screen.

 *Actually, Keanu was only in the first Speed movie...Jason Patric replaced him in the 2nd one.

Interesting thought, DarthBob...I'm not computer savvy enough to agree or disagree with your theory about motion capture becoming obsolete in the future.  Would be crazy cool if animation ever actually got that good.