Oscars Oscars Oscars!

So yesterday us Brits woke up while the Hollywood A-Listers partied hard into the night following another great night at the Oscars. We find out that it is a Brit's night, with Slumdog Millionaire winning 8 times and Kate Winslet finally rewarded for her great acting, with best actress for The Reader. Shock of the night came when Mickey Rourke was snubbed for Sean Penn, who won best actor for his role as Harvey Milk in Milk. But there were bigger snubs all round. How about the films that didn't get mentioned for the main prizes...

The Dark Knight was one of the most commercially succesful films of 2008, and bar the best supporting actor, was only nominated for production categories such as Best Achievement in Makeup and Art Direction. Heath Ledger's nomination was a case of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' but he was a worthy winner.

Other films that didn't get enough recognition were Wall-E, which was mind blowing and deserved much more, and Gomorrah, Christopher Nolan (for the Dark Knight), James Franco and Benicio Del Toro for his role as Che Guevara. But that's also what makes the Oscars great. The talk afterwards about this and that, who didn't get nominated and who should've won what.

But one thing that bugged me recently was to do with the best picture award. With Slumdog Millionaire winning over The Reader, Milk, Frost/Nixon and Benjamin Button, something struck me which I will now demonstrate below.

Slumdog Millionaire - Released 23rd Jan 2009 (Limited from 12 Nov 08)

The Reader - Released 10th Dec 2008

Milk - Released 26th November 2008

Frost / Nixon - Released 23rd January 2009

Benjamin Button - Released 25th December 2008

(Based on USA openings)

Notice that? Not one film was released before November of last year, and all these films were released in the UK in January. Every single one. Meaning films brought out around this time for next years award and going to struggle. Does the Academy only watch the recent films to decide what to award?

That will be the classic Hollywood Wants Money scam going on. As many of these films are still in the cinema, the Oscars drive more people to see them by advertising through Oscar noms. I'm not saying that none of these films deserve recognition, but it's getting more and more unfair on people working on films earlier in the year to not get nominated due to Hollywood risking not making money from it. Slumdog Millionaire was a deserved winner, but where was The Dark Knight, Son of Rambow, Let the Right One In, 4 Months 3 Days and 2 Nights, The Visitor, Wall-E, and The Happening? Ok, not the last one. But I'll tell you where they were. Back in the early part of 2008, that's where.