People ask: Will you attempt to see all of the Oscar-nominated movies before the awards-show deadline this year? And will you again be chronicling it?
I will, and maybe. I began this year in the same spot, having seen only two Oscar-nominated films when the nominations were announced two weeks ago. Progress has been slow: I’ve now seen 11.
I’m feeling less pressure, because here’s the thing about 2013’s pool of contenders.
There are fewer movies in the race. Last year, you’ll recall if you read me, there were 46 nominated movies across all categories and 15 shorts to spy in my annual rite to see everything before Red (Magic) Carpet Day. This year, because of excessive hogging of noms by two flicks in particular (you know who you are, “Lincoln” and “Silver Linings Playbook”), there are only 38 unique features to get through.
Here is the full list, in order of the Academy’s own hierarchy by category, from Best Picture through Writing (Original Screenplay), eliminating repeats. And a note to the Academy: Unsure why you list the writing awards last. They should come first — they do come first in the process — or at least immediately after the top six categories that most people focus on. Check marks indicate the ones I’ve seen so far:
- Amour
- Argo
- Beasts of the Southern Wild √
- Django Unchained
- Les Misérables √
- Life of Pi
- Lincoln √
- Silver Linings Playbook √
- Zero Dark Thirty √
- The Master
- Flight √
- The Impossible
- The Sessions √
- Brave √
- Frankenweenie √
- ParaNorman √
- The Pirates! Band of Misfits
- Wreck-It Ralph
- Anna Karenina
- Skyfall
- Mirror Mirror
- 5 Broken Cameras
- The Gatekeepers
- How to Survive a Plague
- The Invisible War
- Searching for Sugar Man
- Hitchcock
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
- Chasing Ice
- Ted
- Kon-Tiki (Norway)
- No (Chile)
- A Royal Affair (Denmark)
- War Witch (Canada)
- Marvel’s The Avengers
- Prometheus
- Snow White and the Huntsman √
- Moonrise Kingdom
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I refuse to see “Ted.”
And, for those who care, here are this year’s shorts, across three categories, always 15 glimmering treats:
- Inocente
- Kings Point
- Mondays at Racine
- Open Heart
- Redemption
- Adam and Dog
- Fresh Guacamole
- Head Over Heels
- Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”
- Paperman
- Asad
- Buzkashi Boys
- Curfew
- Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)
- Henry
The other odd thing this year:
Movie titles are shorter. A fascinating trend. Could it be a consequence of Twitter — filmmakers, wanting to better promote their products on all platforms, have decided to limit their characters (sic)? It seems that a good third — 34% — of this year’s nominated features are one-word titles. Last year, only 28% of the titles were one word. And this year’s words are shorter — heck, “Life of Pi” may as well be one word for all it evokes in eight characters. And if you eliminate subtitles and articles like “The” (even in French, “Les”), the one-word percentage for 2013 goes even higher: 50%, vs. 39% in 2012
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Related articles:
• Life gets in the way of movies (mommytongue.com)