Best Picture

It’s awards season in movie land. Just last week the Academy announced the nominees for best picture. I look forward to this as a way to find out about quality movies that I might have missed over the year. I try to make it a point to see as many movies that are nominated for best picture as possible. Usually I don’t succeed in seeing them all before the award show actually happens, but I still try. Last year some of my favorites were Winter’s Bone and 127 Hours.

The 2012 nominees for Best Picture are:
“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
“Hugo”
“Midnight in Paris”
“The Help”
“Moneyball”
“War Horse”
“The Tree of Life”

I have previously seen “The Help” and “War Horse” before the nominations were announced. I loved “war Horse” and it brought me to tears many times with its messages about courage and bravery.

I thought “The Help” was an interesting movie, and I found myself wanting to know more about each of the characters, and what luck, I can, because there is a book it was based on!

Next up that I want to see is “Midnight in Paris.” Before the nominations came out I had heard many good things about this movie on Twitter. I think it will be the first on my list of new ones to see.

The reason I try and see as many of the nominated movies as possible is so that I don’t end up like the people I know who go crazy rooting for the ONE movie that have seen that year (i.e. “The King’s Speech,” which on of my family members actually screamed when it won last year, and I had to point out it was the ONLY one they had seen.)

Not all nominated movies are that great, and many good ones go unacknowledged. For example, a few years ago I was disappointed the “Grand Turino” was not nominated for Best Picture. The academy awards are often criticized for being too political, or to PC, and I can’t always argue with that. However, I take it as an opportunity to celebrate artistic creation and expression, and also an opportunity to celebrate movies and film.

Personally, I love going to the movies. I even sometimes just go on my own. I enjoy it so much that I even get excited at the smell of the popcorn in the theater, even though I rarely buy it. While watching a movie on your couch in the comfort of your own home is therapeutic and cozy, seeing a show in the theater is exciting, and more enveloping. I feel like I can become more engrossed in the music and scenery while watching it on the big screen. Also, I am not the type of person to watch movies over and over again. I generally watch them once in the theater, and then once again when the come out on DVD is they were really good, but typically that’s it. I don’t have a huge DVD collection; I like to keep it new and fresh.

So for the next few weeks I will be either cuddling up on the couch to watch the nominees I haven’ t seen yet, or hopefully catching some of them in the theater if the older ones are re-released, and of course I will catch the very end of the Oscars when they announce who won.

Which have you seen? Which do you want to see? Which are you rooting for to win?