January 25, 2005

Oscar Grouching

I don’t have a lot to say about this year’s Oscar nominations, as usual the Best Picture nominees are the five I was expecting, although this year I’ve only seen two of the five (I missed “Million Dollar Baby,” “Finding Neverland,” and “Ray,” although the latter is coming from Netflix next week). I’ll be rooting for “Aviator” and Martin Scorsese.

I’m happy that my favorite movie of the year, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” got the two nominations it deserved- original screenplay and actress for Kate Winslet, and also that “Fahrenheit 9/11” was shut out completely. I’d feared that the Academy would award it Best Picture out of pure anti-Bush spite.

As for the other Most Controversial Movie of the Year, someone pointed out awhile ago that “Passion of the Christ” would be eligible for Best Foreign Language Film, except there’s no Aramaic home country. Similarly, you know how the Village Voice’s insufferable film critics seem to back at least one big new Palestinian movie each year? Palestinian films are ineligible in that category as well. Why? Because Palestine isn’t a country. Seriously.

Posted by Stephen Silver at January 25, 2005 09:03 PM
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