As we’ve already established, we love watching films. Which also means that we have a love/hate relationship with the big ‘awards season’. Whether it’s the BAFTA or the Golden Globes, the SAG or the Oscars – each one has been known to have it’s moments when they seem to have completely lost the plot! But that doesn’t stop us from following them year after year. ‘Tis the season to root for our favorites and then feel intense although short lived, spurts of happiness or disappointment depending on the outcome. Whether the awards are fair game or just celebrate the inner circle is a historical debate, we’re definitely not getting into here – but they are surely a source of entertainment, excitement and exuberance.
The other thing these awards always end up doing is giving us an end of year movie watching list, the lesser heard, lesser advertised, outside of Marvel’s superheroes, fast and furious gang films (think Carol, Whiplash, The Pianist). And for the last many many years we’ve tried (unsuccessfully) to watch all films that emerge as contenders before the awards, just so we can say ‘I told you so’ when some of them win and some of them don’t 😉 So this year when we decided to start The Popcorn Waltz – it was only right to begin by undoing the wrong of years past. And we’re gonna do that by playing what we’re calling ‘The Oscars Challenge’, a name born at the lowest pits of our creative thinking :/
This is how it works. We’ve shortlisted 12 of the 20 odd Oscar nominated movies this year, primarily based on whether their trailers looked intriguing, but also how many categories they were nominated in and other logistical details. We have 5 weeks till Feb 28th to watch all 12 of these films, write about them and come up with our predictions. And what’s even better is you can play along! Watch any/all of these films and tell us what you think and when we open the poll for our predictions – please, please vote. It’s a super tight schedule, so let’s get started.
Here’s our list of films, if we’re missing something that’s a must watch let us know and we’ll try our best to incorporate: