On a good year, I’ve seen most of the nominated films before the nominations come out. I always kick myself over films that I didn’t see which then get multiple (or significant) nominations, then I like to make a point of seeing them. I enjoy watching the awards ceremony and it’s more fun when I’ve seen all the films and have my own strong opinions. I never bother to gauge what will win, I just ponder what I think should win.
One thing that has come to bother me- and I’ve really just started noticing it more in the age of social media:
People watching the nominees as if it is “homework” and with the attitude that because the film was nominated for awards it is owed to them that they will like the film. Then, when they don’t like the film they get indignant as if they’d been duped into watching and cheated of their time.
People who feel this way year after year are only duping themselves.
So many times over the past month I’ve seen on Facebook “This was supposed to be a great movie!?!?” I finally had to make a post of my own “No, x is not supposed to be a great movie. It just is what it is. The filmmakers made the film they wanted to make and some people liked it and others didn’t. In this case, enough people liked it that it got nominated for some awards. That’s just the response the film got- it doesn’t mean everyone will like it, it doesn’t mean you will like it.”
I think it’s fine for someone to make a point of seeing the top nominated films because they want to form their own opinion and they recognize that their opinion of some of the films will be unfavorable. The people who treat it as something they’re forced to do then complain about the ordeal need to realize that it is entirely within their power to just stop with the entirely voluntary practice.
Like many others, I see what interests me, which usually includes some of the nominees, but not all of them.
I think I used to take the Oscars more seriously in college. In 2005 I saw Brokeback Mountain and was sure it would win. Crash won and I was surprised, but I hadn’t seen it yet. I saw it on DVD based on the win and based on a friend recommending it to me, and I was baffled by the praise. It was harder for me to take the Oscars seriously after that.
And looking at the list of winners and nominees through the yearsdoesn’t change my mind. There are many classic movies there, but also many movies that were quickly forgotten once the Oscar hype wound down. And many movies that are seen as classics now didn’t win or weren’t even nominated. So I figure I’ll get around to seeing some of the nominees if I’m still interested and people keep talking about how good the movie is. But some of them people will stop talking about soon and I won’t need to waste my time ever seeing.
I try to. I love movies but if I only went to movies that I thought I would like based on advertising I would still see a lot of superhero movies but far fewer truly good films. A few years ago I committed to trying to see at least all the BP nominees - usually I’ve missed one but this is the second year in a row I saw them all and I’m glad I did. Off the top of my head, here are three movies I never would have seen otherwise that I totally loved: this year’s Whiplash, last year’s Nebraska and from a few years back, Winter’s Bone.
I also live in a second tier city (though its getting better) so movies generally get here really late. I never did see Amour (from 2 years back) come through and I’m still waiting for Still Alice although I may have blinked and missed it.
The past four years I’ve attended the two-day Best Picture Showcase that amc theaters (I think it’s just them) puts on. Four on one Saturday, four on the next Saturday. It’s harder when there are more than eight films but I hardly ever get to the movies anymore, and I don’t end up seeing many films that were nominated for other awards. It’s a fun couple days of marathoning with like minded people. I don’t think I could do the one-day marathon with all the best picture nominees shown on one day, though.
No special effort here either. In fact, winning is a strike against a movie.
Of this year’s list, I’ve only seen Grand Budapest Hotel. My wife thought it was good (not wonderful but good). I found it somewhere between tedious and root canal. I might watch some of the others as they wind up in my NetFlix queue, but even being nominated is literally enough to make me second-guess whether I should add the movie.
The people at the Academy do not have my tastes in mind, and I’ll just leave it there.
I am certainly not the typical Hollywood movie-goer, though I probably fit neatly into a niche with a lot of other people. I like science fiction and fantasy, with horror in there to a lesser degree (but mostly supernatural suspenseful horror, the kind that most people complain are too slow and didn’t answer enough questions. Chainsaws and gore are not what I watch horror for.)
Explosions and titties are not necessary - Gattacca was a pretty darn good movie, for example. Or even Upstream Color (just so I can show off some indie creds, right?)
My wife and I go to movies quite often, so over the course of the year we usually hit multiple nominees anyway. Then when the nominations are announced we race to fill in the missing pieces before the Oscars.
We got all 9 last year, and all 8 this year. I really didn’t have much interest in seeing Whiplash, but had to check the box – and it turned out to be my favorite of the 8.
A friend (well, a Facebook friend) makes it a point to see *all *nominees: Documentary Short, Foreign Language… Now, that’s hard-core.
Some years I see more than others, but I never go out of my way to see a movie just because it was nominated. Too many crappy movies get nominated for that.
This last year was one where my wife and i went to very few movies. The only Best Picture nominee i saw was Selma, although i also saw the Best Foreign Language winner, Ida. Of the movies i didn’t see, i think i’d most like to see Birdman and Boyhood.
My wife and I have made a point of watching all of the Best-Picture nominated movies prior to the Oscar telecast, and have for the last six or seven years. I think the only one we missed in that period was last year’s Twelve Years a Slave, and we simply ran out of time before the awards show.
We’ve enjoyed some excellent movies that we wouldn’t have otherwise seen; we’ve also sat through some really awful ones (to one of us or both). Neither of us, for example, really cared for *Birdman *-- I like a well-constructed and inventive long shot as much as anyone, but the feature-length long shot conceit in *Birdman *got tiring after a while, and the movie made its point about 30 minutes before the credits rolled, and then it kept making it and making it again.
I guess we probably see 20-30 movies a year in the theater. We appreciate blockbusters as much as we do arthouse movies – they each have their place.
One might assume I am intentionally boycotting Oscar-worthy films from my viewing history; the truth is that I watch films for the escapist element and spectacle. That is not to say I enjoy Michael Bay films, but I would likely elect to see Captain America II seven more times than see any of the contenders this year.
Over the course of the year I’ll try to see movies that critics I’ve grown to like and respect (e.g. A.O. Scott of the New York Times; the late Roger Ebert) recommend. It’s not a perfect system, but it usually serves me pretty well. Those movies tend to be well-represented when Oscar nominations are announced at the end of the year, so in that sense, yes. But I don’t purposely go back and watch movies just because they’ve been Oscar nominated.
I generally just see movies at my neighborhood theater, and once the nominees are announced they typically have at least one of the Best Pic nominees playing, and those are generally the only movies playing there that I have any interest in seeing, so…
I don’t see too many movies in theatres, but I saw 4 of the BP nominees this year. In general, I find that movies which get nominated tend to be at least pretty good IMO, so I do find nominations a useful guide for deciding what to see.
Let’s not let the hyperbole get out of control here… As someone who enjoys most of Marvel’s movies, I can say without hesitation that I’d sooner watch paint dry than be forced to sit through Captain America II again.
We do this too, and it’s indeed fun…it’s actually one of our favorite events of the year. This year we missed the first four because of the weather, but did make the second weekend.
We make an effort to see any we missed, just so we can argue about who will win/should have won afterwards. Most years there are just one or two we’ve missed.