It was all about awards on the weekend party circuit: Academy Awards on Sunday with the boa-ed and beaded set, odd-ball construction awards on Friday with the structural set.

        CANstruction, the annual FreeStore/FoodBank benefit where design firms make art out of canned goods, kicked off Friday with cocktails and awards at the Aronoff's Weston Gallery.

        This is the one where designers flex their gray matter and come up with, uh, unique constructions. Consider: “Leveling Hunger” by McGill Smith Pushton is a gigantic earth mover made entirely of cans of Red Gold tomatoes, bags of dried beans and — get this — tins of sardines for the tractor treads — 130,000 cans of food, all headed to the FreeStore. It won the Jurors' Favorite Award.

        There are seven entries this year. “Judging is always a lunatic transaction,” FreeStore president Steve Gibbs said.

        One entry is a wonderful pagoda (Food Manchu; it won Best Meal) made of cans of chow mein and noodles.

        The show is about 10 1/2 tons of food and up for viewing through Friday. Admission is, you guessed it, a can of food.

        The Oscars were the centerpiece Sunday, when about 350 dressed to the teeth and showed up at the Hyatt for the fifth annual Oscar Night America, a cocktail, dinner and TV-watching do that benefits People Working Cooperatively.

        It's a formal do, this, where guests do black tie and party frocks or come as characters in a favorite movie. Hence the table full of Wizard of Oz people. And the denim-decked Sissy Spacek wannabe. And Debbie Boehm, a knockout in a reproduction of Julia Roberts' dress from the 2001 Oscars.

        Lots of beads, feathers and bright red, thanks to the Moulin Rouge theme — they even had the signature windmill projected onto the wall of the dining room where guests munched chicken and filet mignon before the serious business of Oscar watching.

        Oh, and commercial watching: During the cocktail hour, guests grabbed props, cue cards and did a mini-screen test to run during Oscar commercials.

        “It takes them awhile to get into it,” said Larry Weber at the camera. “But after a few few cocktails, well ... ”
       

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