What better time to announce this than on the day of the Academy Awards? President Obama seems to be making fast use of some of that campaign cash rolling into his coffers. Rather than wasting time with silly things like coming up with an energy policy, Team Obama is going Hollywood.

With Hollywood gathering this weekend for the 84th Academy Awards, President Barack Obama has recruited Oscar-winning documentary director Davis Guggenheim to again produce a short film for his campaign.

Obama’s re-election staff in Chicago spent $162,834 on the film last month, according to the January Federal Election Commission filing. Currently in post-production, the film focuses on the president’s first three years in office, according to a campaign official.

The film will be less than 30 minutes long and released in weeks, though the exact date hasn’t been decided, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The campaign is still considering how it will be used, the official said.

What to do with a thirty minute film is a good question. It’s not long enough to be a feature film, but buying a 1/2 hour slot in prime time across the country is a pricy proposition, even for somebody with those kids of cash resources. And who’s going to sit through a thirty minute campaign commercial?

Perhaps the pedigree of the players involved will help. As was noted above, the award winning Davis Guggenheim was tapped to head up the project. Does that name ring a bell? (Ahem.) The all-star cast is a given, natch. No word if Biden gets more than a walk-on role, though.

Unfortunately, since the film isn’t finished yet and there’s only a few hours left until the Red Carpet is rolled out, it doesn’t seem like The Obama Movie will have a shot at an Oscar tonight. I mean, you can’t really give an award out for work that hasn’t even been completed yet, can you? Then again, it worked for the Nobel Peace Prize, so…