Around the awards season, it’s a kick to try to see all the Oscar nominated films in the six major categories covered in this newsletter. Best Screenplay is another category that belongs on THE standard bearing list. To ride the loving ride more fully, you might try to see all the nominated foreign language films and all the animated features and all the documentaries. You can add dimension when you try to see all the nominated movie shorts. There’s live action shorts, animated shorts, and documentary shorts. (This year’s best are the documentary shorts.) News flash: Award season is prime time to travel this path, but hey, assemble your list and watch all year.
It isn’t about especially liking all these movies. It’s about letting the list expose you to more movies, to a bigger range of movies. It’s about allowing surprise or disappointment or qualified appreciation to wash over you. And it isn’t just about being Oscar primed. The Screen Actors Guild awards and the Golden Globes awards and the Directors Guild not only guides you through the overlap, it adds a few more titles. There’s also the Independent Spirit Awards …. I’m just sayin’. Are you watching too many sitcoms, too many crime and lawyer and medical TV shows, reality TV shows…. I’m just sayin’.