So if you remember that my friend S.B. and I go every year to watch the Oscar broadcast in the middle of the night ("previously on Vienna in 250 Words a Day"), then you'll also remember that this is the second year that we'll be attempting to watch all of the nominated films before the ceremony.
"All of them? Even the documentaries?" Well no, obviously not. S.B.'s seen one of them, and it's the only one I've heard of so I'll probably just vote that one. I'm sure that's probably how the Academy does it anyway.
But we will certainly try to see as many of them as we possibly can and especially all the best picture nominees. (Last year I was so incredibly informed about all the nominees and could speak quite expertly about their chances for winning, despite the fact that I couldn't keep straight the titles A Serious Man and A Single Man. I had to keep saying "The Coen Brothers One and The Colin Firth One.")
This project is great, but has its challenges.
First, the challenges.
Vienna is usually pretty behind when it comes to film releases. Sometimes six months to a year behind. [Ed's note, sometimes we get them one or two days early, like with Event Films such as Harry Potter. Yay time difference!]
And then, if they don't think there will be a market here, some films may just never come out. So tragic.
Fortunately for us, the dvd release schedule is not always tied to the cinema release, and sometimes a film is available on dvd before it's in cinemas because of it's release on the German market.
Last year Crazy Heart just didn't make it in time though, and I had to content myself with watching the trailer over and over again and figuring that everyone really likes Jeff Bridges. We were only able to complete last year's Oscar 2010 collection in May or June I think. (But it was worth the wait, Crazy Heart was good.)
Not being able to see all these movies way before means a pretty rigorous schedule leading up to the awards ceremony. But we handle it like pros. We'll have to be in the cinema at least once or twice a week, with a dvd or two thrown in for good measure. To be honest, we were further along this time last year. We started with the other award shows to guess what we'd need to see, so we already had several under our belt by the time the announcements were made. We didn't pay as much attention this year (plus the Golden Globes had Burlesque in there, so we couldn't really take them seriously).
And then, all those cinema tickets add up, and it's kind of an expensive project.
It's really great though.
We're already going to the Oscar broadcast, so it's nice to be informed. And as you know, I'm into film, so it's nice to be informed about something I already like. And then it's fun to be able to make an educated prediction of the winners to maybe win Fabulous Prizes! at the event.
But also, it kind of forces me outside of my normal viewing to see things that I might not otherwise see. To give you a hint of my normal viewing habits, every year when the nominations come out I have already seen 4 of the 5 films nominated for Best Visual Effects (and for some reason, Editing. I guess I really have my thumb on the pulse of the Editing Industry). Last year I'm sure I wouldn't have seen The White Ribbon, because everyone says Haneke's films are always so depressing - which it was not. And I would not have expected that I would have liked The Hurt Locker - but I did. And I would not have otherwise have gone to see That Sandra Bullock Movie that won her the Oscar - because it was in fact very, very terrible.
Maybe I should have put that last bit in with the negative points.
So join us next time when I start writing up the reviews of some of the nominated films I've seen so far.
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