It’s getting to be that time of year again. Time for a shadowy organization of powerful men and women to choose for the whole world what they believe are the best movies.
That’s right! This years list of Oscar nominees is out, and I’ve seen exactly two of the ten nominees for best picture. Hopefully at least a few of these will be available through Netflix before the awards show so I can get at least a little caught up, but right now I’m pulling for either Toy Story 3 or Inception.
I do take pride in the fact that even at two I’ve seen more nominees for Oscars than I have for this years Razzies.
I enjoy watching the Oscars, if for nothing else than it gives me a nice, concise list of movies to try and watch. Obviously they are not perfect judges of which movies are good and deserving of awards and which aren’t, but they’re still fun.
I still hold a grudge from when Children of Men didn’t win best picture in 2006.
I’ve also only seen 2 of the 10, but my sense is that 2011 was kind of a weak year for movies.
If I were going to pick a strongest year for Oscar films since I’ve been paying attention to them it’d probably be either 2001, 1999, or 1994. Which year do you think was strongest?
If they had done 10 nominees back then it might have looked something like this:
2001
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Moulin Rouge
Gosford Park
In the Bedroom
Ali
A Beautiful Mind
Black Hawk Down
Training Day
I Am Sam
Memento
1999
Sleepy Hollow
The Insider
The Cider House Rules
The Sixth Sense
Girl Interrupted
American Beauty
The Green Mile
The Sixth Sense
Magnolia
Toy Story 2
1994
Forest Gump
The Shawshank Redemption
Pulp Fiction
Legends of the Fall
Ed Wood
The Lion King
Quiz Show
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Bullets Over Broadway
The Madness of King George
I think 2001 may be my favorite out of those. What a great year for movies. I think 2007 is way up there with me too, they just nominated a few movies they shouldn’t have (Babel), and left out a few they should’ve. My 10 for that year would be:
Children of Men
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Departed
Little Miss Sunshine
Blood Diamond
The Last King of Scotland
The Queen
United 93
Letters From Iwo Jima
The Lives of Others
I don’t know enough about this years movies, but your right that people don’t seem to be gushing over a lot of them like they have in the past. Still, I plan on watching a few more before the 27th.