Oscars

Congratulations, of course, go to Martin Scorsese and The Departed. They had my vote this year (I called the victory a month ago). I’ve always respected Scorsese and actually prefer him to someone like Spielberg.

There is a new trend at the Academy Awards - they are increasing different from the once reliable predictor, the Golden Globes. The Departed marks the third year in a row that the Oscar winner for best picture did not win the Golden Globe for best picture. The three previous times that occurred where in 1995 (Braveheart), 1992 (Unforgiven), and 1991 (Silence of the Lambs). To find the fourth occurrence you have to go all the way back to 1978 (The Deer Hunter). And, though I haven't done the research, I'm willing to bet that when you add in Little Miss Sunshine's win at the SAG's, you have the unprecedented event of three different movies taking home the top prize at the Golden Globes, SAG's, and Oscars.

The biggest upset that speaks volumes about how very worthy movies can easily slip through the craps is The Lives of Others beating out Pan’s Labyrinth for Best Foreign Language film despite Pan’s Labyrinth earning more nominations than The Departed. This is because while nominations are based the film recommended by Academy members, the winners are supposed to only be chosen by those who have seen all five nominees in a given category. So, what much have happened was, The Lives of Others was relatively unseen by voters until after the nominations came out, just enough to earn its nomination. But once the voters watch all the foreign nominees, they realized it was better than even Pan’s Labyrinth. That makes me think it’s quite likely that if the Academy were to call for another vote to pick nominations, the list of nominees would be remarkably different than it was, not just in the foreign film category.
Anyway, just a thought.

Bring on the best of ’07.