Best Picture Challenge

Every year around this time, I find myself frantically trying to see all the big contenders up for Best Picture at the Oscars. Sometimes the films are only due for release after the Awards season, so that all the hype afterward carries them into the local box office. How many of us are itching to see The Hurt Locker purely because of all the awards it has won and the critical acclaim it has already notched up? Press members do sometimes get to see the films before they release on the big screen but sometimes there just isn’t time to see them all before the Awards.

Well, this year the challenge is a little harder because there are now 10 films to watch, each with its own world to get caught up in. That’s five more than has traditionally been the case. I have seen seven of the films, and The Hurt Locker was one missing from that list. The press screening was scheduled for the Friday before the Oscar ceremony, which I was going to miss because I am on a flight to LA as I write.

So, imagine my delight when paging through the inflight-entertainment magazine, I see all the films I have yet to watch. The next ten hours from London to Los Angeles may see me getting in more film-watching than sleeping! But at least by the time I arrive, I will have seen all ten of the most acclaimed movies from the past year - or so say the folks that make up the Academy!