2013 Oscar Preview: Introduction

In 2012, I saw 121 films, 40 of which came out in 2012. As of the writing of this post I have seen 45 46 47 films that were released in 2012. I absolutely do not consider myself a movie buff (which helps explains why so my times people have come up to me and asked, “Have you seen Film X?” and are flabbergasted when I haven’t seen it). However, what I am is a lover of film. I love to see films, I love to talk about them, and I have seen a shit ton of films in my life. My goal is to see the very best films and one day I hope I will be able to get to a point where I have seen every single Film X. But for right now, all I have are my experiences, my knowledge, and my opinions. I also love debating the Oscars. Even though they let me down every single year, I still do enjoy talking about them nonetheless.

Between now and February 24^th, I will release ten posts about the 2013 Oscars. Each post will contain a discussion topic about a different and particular Oscar category: Best Cinematography, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Make Up, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Film. I will not discuss every single Oscar category because either a) I do not deem those categories important or b) I haven’t seen enough films in that particular category to accurately judge and talk about that category (most notably Best Animated Film and Best Documentary).

In each of my ten posts, I will be discussing my thoughts on the actual nominations, who I would have selected if I had an Oscar vote, my thoughts on why I selected those nominees, who I think will win, and who I think should win.

While I have not seen every single film in each of the ten categories I will be discussing, I have seen a majority of them. Also, guess what? Most Oscar voters haven’t seen every single film from the major nominations. The only people who have probably seen every single film nominated for an Oscar are movie critics and they get their own award show (Although I do want to point out that Roger Ebert did not put Django Unchained on his end of the year 2012 list solely because he hadn't seen the film and because there is a short window where you HAVE TO release your end of the year list and Ebert had to put his out in order to stay relevant. While I’m sure he’s seen Django since then, the point is even movie critics are not perfect.)

Excluding Best Make Up (because you actually really don’t need to see the full movie to state an opinion on it), there are 16 films from the categories I will be discussing that garnered nominations. Out of those 16, I have seen 10 of those films. Out of the 6 I have not seen, 4 of those films only received one nomination. The other two films are Amour and Les Miserables. Les Mis is part of a genre (musicals) that I know I personally do not like so it is very improbable that I will enjoy or respect the film after seeing it and Amour is a foreign film that really no one outside of the Academy saw.

Out of the categories I will be discussing, here are the movies per nominations that I have seen:

Best Picture: 7/9

Best Director: 4/5

Best Actor: 4/5

Best Actress: 3/5

Best Supporting: Actor: 5/5

Best Supporting Actress: 3/5

Best Original Screenplay: 3/5

Best Adapted Screenplay: 5/5

Best Cinematography: 4/5

Out of the 16 films that produced nominations, here are the films I have and have not seen:

Have Seen

• Argo
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Django Unchained
• Flight
• Lincoln
• Life of Pi
• The Master
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Skyfall
• Zero Dark Thirty

Have Not Seen

• Amour
• Anna Karenina (1)
• Les Miserables
• Moonrise Kingdom (1)
• The Impossible (1)
• The Sessions (1)

*(1) = film has only received one nomination from the categories I will be reviewing
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