Ah, awards season.
The time when suddenly good films rushing to theaters, leaving us in wonder with whatever happen to the rest of the year.
The time when suddenly some good, serious actors grace cover of lifestyle magazines.
The time when we are forced to read and nod along in pretense whenever news about film X winning critics awards, or actor Y continues his/her winning streak.
Wait. Pretend?
Here’s the thing.
Chances are you read this note in your computer at home. That means most likely you reside outside US, or any countries that so far have had the Oscar nominated films released there.
Of course, you are deprived of the joy of knowing the films first hand, since all you can do is read about them.
Films? Read? They don’t go together. Hardly.
The other option is to rely on piracy.
Harsh truth, but everyone in many countries are exposed to this one way or another. Even then, not many films are already available in black market.
Sometimes the ones being sold are taken with crappy cameras, or having subtitles generated by Google Translate.
In other words, we are deprived of watching the films on big screen, as they are supposed to be seen.
(Hey, aren’t Oscar voters also watching films they have to vote from DVD screeners they get from studios? Hmmm …)
But thanks to the Internet, gone are the days when we were completely alien to the Academy Awards.
Oh, don’t you think I could forget when TVRI aired the time when Marlee Matlin forced herself to say “and the winner is” to Michael Douglas, Best Actor for Wall Street … only to realize the names and the film years later. Or when RCTI had Adolf Posuma in Los Angeles doing live reporting the time when, finally, Al Pacino won for Scent of a Woman.
We had no clue about the films then.
Now, with film bloggers and awards-specialist bloggers dominate and, like it or not, influence how and where the season goes, we become more familiar with each course of award seasons.
For film fans, we become expert as years go on.
For non film fans, you are likely to be overwhelmed … and that is why you need to read this note!
Nine films nominated for Best Picture, with some tenfold other pictures nominated in scattered categories can be puzzling.
But you need to catch up with your colleagues, peers, dates, flings come Oscar ceremony up to a week after; thus, I offer you a shortcut: sound bites.
What I am going to do is list several main categories (there are 24 categories in total!), and offer you one liners of information or trivia about the nominated works that will make other people go “wow! I didn’t know that you know that!” at you.
Then, as you are compelled to answer the often asked question of “so, who do you think it’s going to win?”, I offer you: safe bets.
This equals to “will win” field you see in many other prediction articles. Like the term suggests, the bets are accumulated from precursor accolades, namely other previous awards held this season, or simply guts gathered from critics.
And my personal pick, being the writer of the note. Don’t fret. Don’t be tempted.
Ready? Here goes:
Nauval Yazid & His Words. 