*** Official Post-Oscar Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Vickie_M]

I'm not in the business and I make it a point to watch all the nominees.

I'm with Edwin, I try to see as many as I can too. It makes me angry when I hear of Academy members who don't watch movies (Bob Hoskins, for example) and who don't make an honest effort to see all the nominees before voting. I wish the Academy would treat all the movies the way they treat the Specialty categories ("Specialty" to me is Foreign Language, Documentary, Documentary Short, Live Action Short and Animated Short) and make members prove they've seen the films before they can vote. I can dream...

Btw, there were 28 films in the non-Specialty categories. This is a list of all the films nominated for the "regular" categories.

ALI

AFFAIR OF THE NECKLACE, THE

A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

AMÉLIE

BEAUTIFUL MIND, A

BLACK HAWK DOWN

BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY

GHOST WORLD

GOSFORD PARK

HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE

I AM SAM

IN THE BEDROOM

IRIS

JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENIUS

KATE & LEOPOLD

LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, THE

MAN WHO WASN'T THERE, THE

MEMENTO

MONSTER'S BALL

MONSTERS, INC.

MOULIN ROUGE

MULHOLLAND DRIVE

PEARL HARBOR

ROYAL TENENBAUMS, THE

SEXY BEAST

SHREK

TRAINING DAY

VANILLA SKY

Personally, pre-Oscars, I saw all of these films except for Vanilla Sky (which I'll see when it comes out on DVD), The Affair of the Necklace, Kate & Leopold and Pearl Harbor (none of which I have any interest in seeing, but I would have seen them if I were a member). I also saw 3 of the 5 Foreign Language films (missed Son of the Bride and Elling).

 

[Seth Paxton]

I guess I missed this last bit of discussion, but put me in the boat as someone who had seen most of what was nominated including the same 3 foreign films that Vickie saw...which is why the No Man's Land was hardly a shocker to me.
I find that as my film appreciation has grown, which includes an understanding to some degree of what the artists see as good efforts, the less I find the Oscars surprising in the least.
For example, it struck me last year that Harden was a strong candidate once I realized that Kate Hudson's role was actually rather typecast considering her real lifestyle.
I think filmmakers consider the "stretch" required. This was brought up again this year regarding Berry versus Spacek.
The only major surprise to me was Black Hawk Down getting editing over Moulin Rouge AND Memento. For everything else, even when it wasn't my choice or guess, the picks made sense. Maybe that's why I defend the Oscars so much.
When I didn't see every film and I had less appreciation of the finer details of filmmaking I felt more outrage over the results. Also I don't think it's realistic to judge the Academy based on their Best Film picks...like pointing to "Pulp Fiction" or "Fargo" and saying "see, that film will be remembered but they didn't pick it". With 20-30 great films being made every year, limiting yourself to 1 best film makes being "wrong" a certainty...for any of us, not just the Academy.
So the bottom line is that I now think that most of these people DO SEE THE FILMS and that this is how they see things. Denzel IS a great actor and carried a film by himself almost...just like Crowe did last year. Berry made a greater stretch, etc etc.
In fact it is some of the missed noms that bother me far more than any winners.
Anyway, the real reason I came back to this thread is to let everyone know that www.ifilm.com has the Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson Oscar bit up for viewing.

 

[Matt Stone]

Thanks for bringing that to my attention Seth. Definitely the best part of the oscars.