Mainly, I’m just so glad that Beasts of the Southern Wild was nominated for Best Picture and that its star Quvenzhane Wallis (now nine years old) was nominated for Best Actress. Both are very deserving of nominations, and it would have been easy for the Academy to overlook such a small indie film and its first-time director and actress.
For the most part, the Academy avoided leaving out the obviously deserving and rewarding the ridiculously underserving – very few big brainfarts this year. I am completely baffled that Ben Affleck of Argo and Kathryn Bigelow of Zero Dark Thirty did not receive Best Director nods; (I would have passed over David O. Russell and Michael Haneke). But that’s just about my only quibble.
Eight of the nine nominees for Best Picture are currently playing at your local theaters (although Amour is harder to find until next weekend). Beasts of the Southern Wild is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streams from a host of VOD services.
You can also find Flight at the theaters and watch Oscar-nominated Denzel Washington. The Sessions, with Oscar favorite Helen Hunt, is still lurking in some second run houses. Among the nominated documentaries, Invisible War is available on Netflix Instant and some VOD services, while Searching for Sugar Man is available from several VOD services (although pricey).