The Oscars Cometh

Yo sup playa? Seriously, I've got to stop doing that. Anywho, embarrassment aside, how's it going Reader? As those of you who don't live under rocks know, the Oscars are fast approaching and will be live on February 26th. So it's that time of year again! Time to watch the nominated movies and decide for myself which films deserve the prestigious awards. The past two years have been duds (first year of university where I stayed up all night on Saturday watching an undisclosed children's show about cards games then slept through the Oscars the following day and second year not being able to find it online)! I've failed myself! Normally I'm all about the Oscars and I've decided that this year I will make it up! I've got all the nominated movies on a list and I'm making my way through, judging them accordingly. 


Now first of all, you're probably wondering why on Earth I give a crap about the Oscars. Not only are they awards for movies, the Academy that decides the winners each year is highly biased to certain types of movies/certain actors in main roles. Yes, the Emmy's would seem more suitable to my taste or perhaps People's Choice Awards, but there's something so magical about the Oscars. It's hard to explain why I love the Oscars. Maybe it's tradition for tradition's sake but I think it mostly has to do with me feeling like a hipster and knowing the winner of the Best Foreign Language film! :P (Denmark's winner last year was really good but Incendies should have won... Oh God, did I just support Québec?!)


As for this year, I feel like 2011 was a let down for movies. There weren't that many 'gooders' if you catch my drift. The Best Picture from 2010 was 'King's Speech' and that definitely deserved it! 'The Fighter' was another really great film from 2010 and it won a bunch of awards. This year's nominees for Best Picture are far less exciting in my opinion. I'm not going to name them all (you can easily check out the nominations on Oscar.com) but I'll give my quick predictions. The black and white silent film 'The Artist' is going to win big. That's what I predict. It's not fair but it's true. It's easy to see why this film got 10 nominations including Best Picture, Best Leading Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director (some of the most prestigious awards given). They did something so different for today's day and age that the Academy has basically no choice but to hand over the awards like candy. I feel for other movies like 'The Help' which was so well done. It doesn't stand a chance against this piece of movie 'gold'. 


Ah Québec! They will just not give up! It's so funny and yet almost sad! For those who don't know what I'm talking about, Québec's entry for Foreign Language Film last year 'Incendies' was supposedly snubbed at the Oscars when it lost to 'In a Better World'. 'In a Better World' is a Danish film and I think that in itself was what won it the award. Scandinavian countries rarely if ever are recognized for their film making by Hollywood so I think that had a great deal to do with it winning. Don't get me wrong, it was a great movie but 'Incendies' was much better. Now normally Reader, Québec and I don't get along too well but in this case, I'm completely on their side. That's why I find it so funny that this year, the Academy has again selected a film from Québec and nominated it for Best Foreign Language Film. This movie is from the same producers who brought us 'Incendies'. The movie is called 'Monsieur Lazhar' and I have not been able to watch it as of yet. So I'm rooting for Québec this year... I never thought I'd hear myself say those words!


This is just a quick shout out to animated movies. You know it's been a bad year for animated movies when 'Kung Fu Panda 2' is nominated for Best Animated Feature. Seriously? There was nothing better than 'Kung Fu Panda 2'?! 'Rango' was also nominated and I think it will win the category. It was witty and kind of dark yet childish enough that kids enjoyed it! I personally loved 'Rio' (the cute story about the two blue birds, you know the one!) but it wasn't nominated for Best Animated Feature. It was however nominated for Best Original Song! Hooray!


The most surprising thing to me this year (besides stupid 'Transformers 3: Dark Side of the Moon' being nominated twice) is the film 'Hugo' and its 11 nominations! It astounded me that a children's movie could be so highly recognized! I actually watched it this weekend and wasn't very impressed. The story was kind of strange and it felt pointless to me. I suppose it was just an average children's story. In my opinion doesn't deserve 11 nominations (including Best Picture and Best Director) but who knows? Maybe I wasn't able to grasp its 'deepness'?


Well Reader, that's about all I have to say. I don't want to ramble any more than I already have because 1) I'm about to watch 'War Horse' (nominated for Best Picture) and it's two and a half hours long and 2) I don't want to chase you away from the Oscars! Please please join me on February 26th and watch this amazing awards show! If not, don't fret! I'll be giving me opinions about the winners shortly after! :)