You'll see the review for this movie in a couple of weeks when our theme will be Foreign Language Film nominees at the Oscars, but this random movie managed to be a truly unique milestone for me, as I finally achieved a dream I have been chasing for years-I am officially at 2000 movies left of the Oscar Viewing Project.
We talk about this a lot on the blog, but for those that have joined me more recently, I wanted to point out exactly what the Oscar Viewing Project is. Essentially I decided many years ago (before this blog was made, even the first go-around) that I wanted to see every film that had ever been nominated for an Academy Award. There were provisos on this (specifically, I was skipping the documentaries and short films as they were too hard to procure and with the documentaries, too difficult to judge from an historical lens), but it was a big, gigantic project, one that honestly I wasn't sure if I would ever really finish. And for years & years, quite frankly, I didn't. While I would make dents on the list, I didn't actually see much progress year-over-year, only having a net decline of 15-20 movies annually, which, with 2100+ titles, was not feasible in a lifetime. It would take too long every year to get through all of the movies from that annum, and especially the random Oscar nominees from that year, and while I was making progress, it wasn't enough.
Last year, though, I decided it was time to get serious about this, and especially during the quarantine, this has become a bit of an obsession, to the point where I now think this will be accomplished not only in my lifetime, but in the next 15 years or so (I'm shooting to average about 12 films a month from the list). 2000 movies sounds like a lot of movies, and it is, but as you'll see below, I have made it in most categories past the halfway point, and in some cases into the 60-70% range of all of them seen. Suffice it to say, this is well-past where most people casually get, and starting to get into "obsessive cinephile" territory with my completist attitudes. Adding in our theme weeks and a more aggressive schedule for our OVP Official Ballots has only fueled my desire to complete this project, which will hopefully stand apart as one of my "life's works."
For those curious, how I go about this, it's sort of gotten into one of four ways. The first is Streaming. Most traditional streaming platforms do not have a lot of older or foreign films, so with two exceptions this is my scouring something like Hulu or Disney+ to see if I can find something that might fit. However, both Criterion and Amazon Prime are brimming with Oscar nominees of yore, and are where I stream 95% of my OVP movies.
The true sources of most of these, though, come from true cinephile must haves: Turner Classic Movies & Netflix DVD's (yes, they still exist). If you are at all serious about seeing a lot of Oscar nominees or working on any sort of old-time Hollywood movie list, these are essential. I have over 200 Oscar nominees currently on my DVR from TCM, and over 450 additional Oscar nominees on my Netflix queue alone. Every week (yes, every single week) I pore through the TCM schedule and the Netflix queue to see what movies I can have come up next to continue to complete this project, and if I even come close to finishing, it'll be because of these two sources.
The last one is increasingly becoming me buying the movies. There are a number of films that are not available on streaming or for rental that I have not chanced upon on TCM, and therefore I've been buying 1-2 titles a month that are super difficult to find as part of this project. Titles like Belle Epoque, Chang, and the Bower Boys' High Society have all been presents to myself or from others in the last year, and I suspect this collection will continue to grow as I'm able.
This is, ultimately, a project doomed to failure. I know of at least ten films that would qualify under the OVP that are currently thought to be lost (that list might not be comprehensive), and that's assuming I can find some incredibly rare films that might only exist under lock-and-key in a university library or Louis B. Mayer's grandson's attic. But this is a fun project, and as the list gets shorter & shorter, my competitive instinct will hopefully come out as I try desperately to see rarer titles.
For today, though, I wanted to do a big check in with where I'm at with the twenty current Academy categories, both from what I have done and what I have missing. Below you're going to see a bunch of categories, and can publicly shame me in the comments if there's a title that you think it's unacceptable I haven't gotten to yet (as I mentioned, I'm working on it!). Share also some of your current movie projects (and if you're doing an Oscar project, PLEASE provide some of your stats-I'm super curious!).
Notes: Every single one of the pictures is a photo of a film that I haven't seen from that year, taken totally at random (using a random number generator because I'm like that). I'll leave you to guess what the movies are if you so choose, and if any of these are particularly good, share in the comments. Also, this only features the twenty current categories at the Oscar. As we go back with things like Dance Direction and Motion Picture Story for the OVP, we will count those with official ballots but I need to put some parameters around this article, which is already aggressively long and wonky.
% of Nominees Seen: 67%
% of Winners Seen: 86%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: The Insider (1999)
Most Recent Missing Winner: Gandhi (1982)
Years I Am Completely Missing: I've never seen anything from 1930-31, despite having copies of a couple of the films either on my DVR or my DVD collection, so I need to fix this ASAP. This was the last one, as I recently caught over quarantine Love is a Many-Splendored Thing which was my first introduction to the 1955 field.
Years I Have Completed: 2000-2019, 1995-96, 1990, 1967, 1958
% of Nominees Seen: 67%
% of Winners Seen: 89%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: Billy Elliot (2000)
Most Recent Missing Winner: Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Years I Am Completely Missing: 1955 shows up here though (Love didn't get in for Best Picture), and we also have three consecutive categories between 1930-31, 1931-32, and 1932-33. These years include Shanghai Express, Morocco, and East of Eden so there's some quality to be had.
Years I Have Completed: 2001-19, 1990, and 1986
% of Nominees Seen: 56%
% of Winners Seen: 69%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: Weirdly, considering how well I do with Best Picture, Best Actor is easily my worst of the Big 6 categories. I'm missing three from 2001-I Am Sam, Training Day, and Ali.
Most Recent Missing Winner: As I mentioned, Denzel's turn in Training Day for some reason I have never gotten around to (but I shall hopefully by the end of the year).
Years I Am Completely Missing: Again, Best Actor is the field I do the worst with (even though Best Picture & Actor lineup quite often), and so I'm missing nominees in nine fields, ranging from everything between 1927-28 & 1932-33 (save for 1929-30, where I've seen a couple), and then 1949, 1955, 1961, & 1983. This means, yes, I haven't seen The Circus, Sands of Iwo Jima, and The Hustler, all classics to some degree.
Years I Have Completed: 2002-Present, as well as 1959 and 1967 (both of which help out a lot by having a ton of overlap with Best Picture).
% of Nominees Seen: 61%
% of Winners Seen: 83%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: 2003 is the year I'm tackling a lot of right now (I'm missing a couple from 2017 & 2018, but 2003 is the first one I've just started tackling again rather than finishing off, as most of the movies I have seen in that year I saw at the time). Therefore we have two nominees from that year left unviewed: Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) and Samantha Morton (In America)
Most Recent Missing Winner: Halle Berry two years before, which came out when I was in high school & would have been an impossible sell to my parents on my catching it at the time (though of course I have obviously missed the opportunity to see it in the years since).
Years I Am Completely Missing: Only two here compared to the nine in Best Actor: 1970 (Love Story being the most obvious missing option) and 1992 (...I've read Howards End though!)
Years I Have Completed: 2004-19 and 1967. The Best Actress field which I have done pretty well on in recent months in kicking my numbers up, seem to always have at least one movie in each year that I haven't gotten around to yet.
% of Nominees Seen: 62%
% of Winners Seen: 77%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: Djimon Honsou in In America, something you Oscar nerds might have known if you saw that note about Samantha Morton.
Most Recent Missing Winner: I don't have the same 2001 gaps here that I had in the lead categories (I've seen Iris), so we have to go back to before I even started watching the Oscars with Martin Landau in Ed Wood as my most recent missing winner (considering that we did a series with a few Bela Lugosi movies a few years back, I'm quite interested to get this one).
Years I Am Completely Missing: This is a first of the categories-I have seen a nominee from every single Best Supporting Actor contest. There are a couple where I'm only on my first, though (1936, 1970, and 1978 are all on that list).
Years I Have Completed: 2004-19, 2002, 1999, 1986, 1971, and 1967
% of Nominees Seen: 64%
% of Winners Seen: 85%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: Despite having seen most of her movies from this era (she was in virtually every movie it seemed between 2002-03), I never got around to catching Patricia Clarkson in Pieces of April, though that one is toward the top of my coming To Do list, as is Holly Hunter in Thirteen.
Most Recent Missing Winner: Not quite as far back as Landau, the most recent missing winner for me would be Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted, a year I'm missing a few titles from (I didn't see an R-rated movie in theaters until 2000).
Years I Am Completely Missing: The only one left is 1991, and looking through the nominees, I don't feel that bad about this being my gap, though I think Cape Fear should be pretty good.
Years I Have Completed: 2004-19, 2001-02, 1997, 1990 (for which I proudly took place in one of my crowning moments as an Oscar aficionado, one of the hallowed Supporting Actress Smackdowns), 1973, 1970, 1962, 1959, and 1947 (by far my best at completing years of any of the Big 6).
% of Nominees Seen: 59%
% of Winners Seen: 79%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: Does anyone remember American Splendor, one of those early Paul Giamatti films that were clearly all building up to Sideways? Cause it's that.
Most Recent Missing Winner: I for some reason have never caught Bill Condon's Gods and Monsters, which is very in my wheelhouse (a queer film about cinema), so I don't know why it's slipped my mind.
Years I Am Completely Missing: Just five this time-1930-32, 1955, and 1960...again with the 1955.
Years I Have Completed: 2004-19, 2002, and 1990 have once again all been completed here.
% of Nominees Seen: 53%
% of Winners Seen: 67%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: Again with the 2003-Dirty Pretty Things, In America, and The Barbarian Invasions are all missing nominees on my list from that year.
Most Recent Missing Winner: We go back all the way to the twisty 1992 thriller The Crying Game (and yes, sadly, I know the twist for this one through pop culture osmosis).
Years I Am Completely Missing: A longer list than I'd like to admit (gonna work on this one in the future), with 1940, 1944, 1945, 1949, 1952, 1965, and 1980 amongst the missing.
Years I Have Completed: 2004-19 and 2002
% of Nominees Seen: 30%, by far my worst category overall though it's worth noting that I did recently watch my 100th Best Foreign Language Film nominee (we're doing a theme week for this category in a couple of weeks)
% of Winners Seen: 38%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: Three from 2017 are missing (the only three films from 2017 that I'm missing)-A Fantastic Woman, On Body and Soul, and Loveless.
Most Recent Missing Winner: A Fantastic Woman won in 2017 (I missed it when it played at the Landmark theaters in the Cities), and am missing that one.
Years I Am Completely Missing: Too many to count at this point. This category I didn't have a head start in (foreign language films in my small rural town were incredibly rare), and availability of titles on both TCM and streaming platforms is thinner than most categories. But I'm working on it!
Years I Have Completed: 2018-19, 2006-16
% of Nominees Seen: 97%
% of Winners Seen: 100%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: This would be again a trip to 2003, with The Triplets of Belleville.
Most Recent Missing Winner: None! I've had all of the winners done here for quite a few years, and because Oscar has been pretty predictable (mostly Disney/Pixar), it's actually been 10 years since I hadn't even seen the winner on Oscar night.
Years I Am Completely Missing: None, again-I had a surprising number of holes in 2002 recently (though I'd seen two of the films back when they were released), but at this point I just have two films, period, that I haven't seen from this category, so my hope is to have it cleared out before we have any more nominees.
Years I Have Completed: Everything except 2001 & 2003.
% of Nominees Seen: 51%, which sounds low until you remember that some of the tech categories used to have a dozen nominees in a given year.
% of Winners Seen: 75%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: A friend of mine who adores this movie is going to hate that I am listing this (I'll get to it soon Robin!), but I have never seen the French movie Amelie despite a copy of the DVD circulating my dorm junior year of college.
Most Recent Missing Winner: Ooh we go pretty far back on this one with The Last of the Mohicans (which I own so this could also happen quickly).
Years I Am Completely Missing: Just four here: 1932-33, 1934, 1949, and 1963.
Years I Have Completed: 2002-19, and that's it. I do very well in the 90's, but seem to be missing one from every year.
% of Nominees Seen: 75%
% of Winners Seen: 76% (easily the closest the nominee-to-win ratio gets for any of these fields)
Most Recent Missing Nominee: I'm gonna be honest here, I think it's U-571, which is also a winner in 2001. However, I also have a memory of this seeing, and I can't tell if that's real or if I'm confusing this with K-9: The Widowmaker, which was another submarine film released at the roughly the same time starring Harrison Ford that I definitely saw (shout out to my brother who I also know is reading this article, who along with my mother were the only people in the theater for this film, which bombed badly at the time). If I did see it, the next up is Fight Club, but I'll re-watch U-571 before I give it an official checkmark.
Most Recent Missing Winner: Like I said, U-571 gets the title here, but if I did see that it's 1996's The Ghost and the Darkness.
Years I Am Completely Missing: Three from the 1960's (63, 65, & 66) and one from the 90's (1996, where somehow both Twister and Independence Day both missed here which would've given me a pass).
Years I Have Completed: 2001-19 and then once again 1967 (I feel like this is going to be one of those years I might do really out of sync in the OVP write-ups).
% of Nominees Seen: 50%
% of Winners Seen: 74%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: This one I definitely know that I haven't seen, though I had a copy of the DVD in my clutches at one point from a friend that I never got around to (I am also trying to be better about returning people's stuff in a more timely manner during the quarantine)-I've never seen Frida.
Most Recent Missing Winner: Like I said, it's Frida.
Years I Am Completely Missing: Just two, 1934 and 1971. You'll notice this is one of my lower percentages of nominees but one I do really well here with just two missing. That's because in the first dozen years of this category the Academy would stockpile nominees; 1942 alone has twenty citations, hence why it's easy to start but difficult to complete a year.
Years I Have Completed: 2003-19, 2001, and half of 1998 (only for Musical/Comedy-they were split for a handful of years between Musical/Comedy and Drama)
% of Nominees Seen: 46% (one of only three categories here where I'm below 50% done)
% of Winners Seen: 59%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: Of all of the categories, this is the one I most question including in the OVP, considering how often the Best Original Song has almost nothing to do with the actual movie and is just something you get over the closing (modern movies) or opening (older movies) credits. I'm trudging through it though, and my most recent missing nominees are A Mighty Wind and The Triplets of Belleville.
Most Recent Missing Winner: We go back just one year to get a missing winner. While I have been to the 8 Mile in Detroit, I've never seen the film starring Eminem (though I could recite every word in this song by heart, and have at at least one party).
Years I Am Completely Missing: Unlike Score, this one's a pretty long list: 1934, 1946, 1948, 1960, 1962, 1970, 1979, and 1983, the latter of which I should surely knock out considering it's only three movies.
Years I Have Completed: 2004-19 and for some reason 1999
% of Nominees Seen: 50% (technically this is rounding up, hence it being the third category I'm not properly at 50%, though obviously I'm really close)
% of Winners Seen: 59%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: Again Frida pops up, proving that needs to be prioritized soon as it's holding up a few categories here.
Most Recent Missing Winner: The little-discussed-today Restoration, which won this category in 1995.
Years I Am Completely Missing: I am only counting years here, but it's worth noting like Costume & Cinematography, this category spent most of the 1940s-1960's split between color and black-and-white achievements, so it's possible I might have nominees from one year, but not from both categories. Either way, it's a pretty long list: all the ceremonies from 1929-34, as well as 1978.
Years I Have Completed: 2003-19, 1998-99, 1986 (somehow), and 1957 (you'll see the final review from that year in a few weeks)
% of Nominees Seen: 54%
% of Winners Seen: 64%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: Frida rears her unibrowed head once again.
Most Recent Missing Winner: And we also see Restoration show up again.
Years I Am Completely Missing: Similar to Art Direction, this was split from the late-40's through 1966 between Color and Black-and-White. Costume is also a category that hasn't been around as long as you'd think (the first year was 1948 even though costuming in movies obviously predates Sound), so we only have three missing years: 1948, 1976, and 1980.
Years I Have Completed: 2003-19, and again 1957 (and no, the nominees were similar but not identical to Art Direction that year)
% of Nominees Seen: 51%
% of Winners Seen: 63%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: No Frida here so we go to 2001, with the Coen Brothers picture The Man Who Wasn't There (one of many nominations for Roger Deakins) and Amelie
Most Recent Missing Winner: We have to go all the way back to 1991 with JFK to get the most recent winner. This is probably my favorite non-acting Oscar category, and definitely the one that has maintained the best credibility record of the tech branches.
Years I Am Completely Missing: There's some question here about what should count, as there were several years that Cinematography was a special award (and I'm counting all of those for the OVP, though they'll obviously not get traditional ballots since there was no competition). That said, I'm missing 1930-35 and 1946 (the early 1930's obviously being my biggest weakness, as evidenced by this article).
Years I Have Completed: 2002-19 and 1957
% of Nominees Seen:
% of Winners Seen:
Most Recent Missing Nominee: Ooph, I'm going to have to admit something here...I've never seen Memento, which is my most recent nominee here (I've also somehow avoided spoilers, so please desist on that front).
Most Recent Missing Winner: Once again JFK comes up as my most recent gap.
Years I Am Completely Missing: Just two here (we don't have split categories anymore, as is also evidenced by the percentage of nominees viewed)-1934 and 1963, both of which, weirdly, feature a biography of Cleopatra among the nominees.
Years I Have Completed: 2002-19, 1997, 1990, and 1981
% of Nominees Seen: 71%
% of Winners Seen: 82%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: This is the most recent nominee I haven't seen-despite it being on Hulu, I have not gotten around yet to Border (I hear it's petrifying, and I'm not sure I'm in that mood right now).
Most Recent Missing Winner: The last appearance of Frida, somehow the mascot of this article.
Years I Am Completely Missing: 1981, 1982, and 1986, which means, yes, I have also never seen The Fly (and again...petrified).
Years I Have Completed: 2019, 2003-17, 2001, 1998, and 1993
% of Nominees Seen: 74%
% of Winners Seen: 88%
Most Recent Missing Nominee: We go back two decades to 2000's Hollow Man, which was a take on the Invisible Man myth with Kevin Bacon.
Most Recent Missing Winner: Last major confession of this article-I have never seen the first two Terminator films (T2 won in 1991), though weirdly I've seen #3 with my cousin.
Years I Am Completely Missing: 1965, 1966, 1969, and 1987 (lots of fields with just 2-3 nominees)
Years I Have Completed: 2001-19, 1998, 1995 (the first Oscar category I ever finished, as I would have seen both of these movies before the Oscars that year), 1977, and 1970
No comments:
Post a Comment