The Oscar "Race" is on

For years I have spent the long, dark, cold cold months of January and February in the warm, dark womb of movie theaters. As a child in Dubuque, IA I would watch the Oscar ceremony with awe until the end when the best-picture nominations would  be announced. The awe came from the fact that most years, none of the five movies would have made it to Dubuque. As I grew and matured, I vowed, like in many overly-dramatic, coming-of-age movies that someday I would see all five nominated movies before Oscar night. Living in the Minneapolis makes that a little easier, but it can be a tight race. 

To qualify to be nominated, movies have to be released on a certain number of screens in NYC and LA by December 31. There is often a rush of releases that then have to trickle across to the heartland.  And since there are only so many screens in Minneapolis, most of the movies that were nominated for the Golden Globes had not shown up here yet when they were announced. Now they are all here at once and I didn't request a vacation to see them all this month. Most will be here only a few weeks unless they break out of the arthouse and into the googaplex.

The Oscar nominations come out January 22 and the ceremony is February 22.  So I have to start my quest blind. I use the Golden Globe nominations as my guide until the various ceremonies and critics' best lists come out. One new companion on my journey is Entertainment Weekly's  list of "25 movies you have to see before Oscar night". Sounds like it was created just for me, but it really puts the pressure on.  When the list came out on Jan. 9, I had only seen 4 of the 25. Now I am up to 6. Perhaps this weekend I can go on a rental spree for those films that actually came out DURING 2008.