In defence of the Oscars

Not like they need me to defend them or anything, but it is the done thing among ‘serious’ music fans to diss the Oscars. It’s not without reason, but as someone who considerers myself a big (serious?) movie fan, and whose tastes are not exactly in the mainstream of Hollywood output, I love ‘em.

I mean, it can’t be all 3 hour Greek arthouse dramas and Ken Loach bleak council estates, can it? We need a bit of show, glitz and glamour to go with our movies, and let’s face it, looking back over the last 78 years, since the Oscars started, there’s been some damn fine films. OK, there’s a bit of a dip in quality in the 80’s but that’s generally true of most things. The 70’s pictures are to die for, and even in recent years, they’re pretty solid stuff on the whole.

So I’ll be glued to my monitor on the morning of 6 March (who’s going to actually stay up and watch it?), and getting excited by it all…

For the record, here are my predictions (not the ones that I’d like to see win, those that I think will win). I take no responsibility for bets placed on the basis of these.

Best Picture: Brokeback Mountain

Best Director: Ang Lee

Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman

Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon

Best Supporting Actress: Frances McDormand

Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney

Best Animated film: Wallace & Gromit

Adapted screenplay: Munich

Original Screenplay: Crash

I’m not going to bother with the rest (why are the Foreign films always such an odd lot?). However, if you want to reverse this game, you can vote for the film/person least likely to win in each category, over at Drew's "Predict The Oscars...Poorly" contest .

You can watch every detail of the Oscar run-in on, erm, Oscarwatch