Awards Season is Coming up

2011 is almost gone. Just 1 more month to go and then award frenzy will start to heat up. Not that it hasn't already started. But it will reach high pitch by then. With Oscar nominations to be announced on 24th of January, predictions, anticipations and expectations will run high. Though I intend to take a piece of that as well, it is still early for me to do it now, since I still have to get around to see a lot of movies which are being tagged as Oscar-worthy (Moneyball(2011), Shame(2011) and The Descendents(2011)) and we are still waiting for release of the likes of The Girl with Dragon Tattoo(2011) and The Artist(2011). Maybe, I can catch up on few of them in near future and then I will jump in as well.

I have a kind of Love-Hate relationship with Oscars. (Well, who doesn't really?) I do not necessarily agree with many of the decisions. In some cases, their decisions are downright shameful - Slumdog Millionaire(2008) winning 8 Oscars?? No  Nomination for Christopher Nolan for Inception(2010)?? and these are just recent examples. Even though you attribute the vastness of the whole process and everything, and take into account that some mistakes are bound to happen, Academy has never made it easy to like them. With the kind of Prestige associated with the Oscars, only focus of it should be to celebrate the best of Cinema. Period. No Prejudices, No favoritism. Sadly, we do not live in the perfect world. How else can you explain the likes of Hitchcock, Sidney Lumet and Stanley Kubrick never winning anything ? I would expect Hitchcock to win for Vertigo(1958) or Notorious(1946) - two movies he wasn't even nominated for. But again, we do not live in the perfect world.

If you asked me few years ago. Oscars used to be my single point of reference. This movie was not nominated for Oscar, maybe it is not that good. That movie had so many nominations, it must be good. And another one won so many Oscars, it has to be the Best Movie Made Ever. Over the years, I have learned to judge Better. More movies I see, more exposure I have to the cinematic world, I can see the folly of my assumptions. Not that Oscar winners are all bad, I just have learned that there is a lot to it beyond them. They are just another awards like many others and they are to be taken as seriously an any other. And there are so many of them. We have Golden Globes, We have BAFTA Awards and then we have Actors, Directors, Writers, Producers Guild, so on and so forth. There are enough to keep us busy for first few months of 2012.

However, even then no one can deny the aura around Oscars. Even if I have grown out of using them as reference, I still am fascinated by them. Especially with all the stars attached to it, the Red Carpet, actual ceremony and all the anticipation behind it, even often only to bitch about it afterwards, never fells to allure me into that world. You can say that the Selection process is seriously flawed or Academy voters have no taste at all and many more things, but still it definitely is one thing almost everyone is looking forward to. And in that case, I am no different from everyone. If not anything else, at least I get to see what everyone else is thinking about my favorite movies of the Year. So, I will play along as well. Let's get it started !!