I’m pretty satisfied with this year’s Oscar nominations. The Best Picture nominees do represent the best Hollywood films of the year, which is the most that we can expect. I’ve seen all of them except for Dallas Buyers Club, and no stinkers got nominated. There’s a pretty strong overlap with my Best Movies of 2013, the 23 movies that I think are the very best – the ones that you think about in the days AFTER you’ve walked out of the theater. (Most of my choices are indies, documentaries and foreign films – not big Hollywood movies.)
Captain Phillips, which has the #10 spot on my top ten, is my favorite Hollywood film of the year. (And I’m particularly glad that the Academy recognized Minneapolis actor-limousine driver Barkad Abdi with a nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a Somali pirate in Captain Phillips.) Nebraska, American Hustle and Her also were among my 23 top movies. Although they didn’t make my list, I also liked The Wolf of Wall Street, Gravity and Philomena. I admired 12 Years a Slave – which is undeniably a fine film – but it’s not on my list because it is such an ordeal to watch.
My choice for the second best film overall in 2013 is the Danish drama The Hunt, which is competing for the Best Foreign Language Oscar with another film that I admire, Italy’s The Great Beauty. My choice for the very best movie of the year is the French film Blue Is the Warmest Color, but it was not released in time to be nominated by France for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.
The Academy took a chance in nominating the uncomfortable and jaw-dropping documentary The Act of Killing (my #9) for Best Documentary Feature, but, in this year’s biggest Oscar mistake, failed to recognize my #4 film overall, the wonderful Canadian documentary Stories We Tell by Sarah Polley.
