I haven't seen enough 2011 movies to adequately rant about their selections, but I'm sure the usual reservations apply. I actually don't have major problems with the Academy per se, which is what it is and functions fine and somewhat amusingly as the industry's very own employee-of-the-month award show, than the continued popular perception that the awards have some direct correlation to what actually constitute the most interesting movies in any given year (see Bill 'he don't play bass' Wyman's recent piece of asinity here, in which the Spielberg relative paucity of best director nominations is taken to mean something, for a prime example of this pernicious line of thinking) . So as an amusing time-waster, I'm in the habit of constructing my own alternate academy awards for years' past, conjuring up a nomination slate that mirrors my own tastes and includes some overlap along with a fair share of nominees who would surely cause the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to implode if they ever set foot inside. My only concession to Academy standards is to limit myself largely to Anglo-American cinema, an abominable restriction that nevertheless makes the whole project slightly more manageable. And as with the academy, token exceptions are made on a wholly random basis.
So since I can't actually construct my own 2011 slate just yet, I've decided to settle for a revision of the 1981 academy awards - the year Chariots of Fire managed to win best picture (after Roger Ebert propelled it to international attention by inventing to wholly fictitious American Critics Prize at Cannes and then reporting that Chariots, a movie he loved but which left most everyone else shrugging their shoulders). For those gnashing their teeth about how the Academy has lost its touch with the common should note that Chariots, while no flop, was hardly the populist choice, nor the critical favorite, I believe, for very many people aside from Ebert. It's almost an ideal representative for Academy middle-brow conservatism, as are many of the rest of the nominees such as On Golden Pond, Reds, and Ragtime. So the occasional hand-wringing about how the Academy somehow lost its way and made a recent turn toward insularity and aesthetic conservatism don't know what the fuck they're talking. 1981 is a fun year to challenge precisely because it so perfectly epitomizes the Academy's preferences and blind spots.
For the curious, here's a complete list of that year's nominees: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/54th_Academy_Awards
Limiting myself to the Academy's options, my preferences among the major categories (plus best original score) are as follows (asterix indicates places where the Academy and I agreed on the best nominee):
Best Picture: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Best Actor: Burt Lancaster, Atlantic City
Best Actress: Susan Sarandon, Atlantic City (note: I have not seen Marsha Mason in Only When I Laugh)
Best Supporting Actor: John Gielgud, Arthur* (note: I have not seen James Coco in Only When I Laugh)
Best Supporting Actress: Maureen Stapleton, Reds* (note: have not seen Joan Hackett in -yep, you guessed it - Only When I Laugh)Best Director: Steven Spielberg, Raiders of the Lost Ark
Best Original Screenplay: John Guare, Atlantic City
Best Adapted Screenplay: Jay Presson Allen and Sidney Lumet, Prince of the City
Best Cinematography: Alex Thomson, Excalibur
Best Original Score: John Williams, Raiders of the Lost Ark
Now, for my own alternate nominees.
Best Picture
Escape from New York
Polyester
The Road Warrior
They All Laughed
Thief
Best Actor
Albert Brooks, Modern Romance
James Caan, Thief
Divine, Polyester
Harrison Ford, Raiders of the Lost Ark
Ben Gazzara, They All Laughed
Best Actress
Karen Allen, Raiders of the Lost Ark
Audrey Hepburn, They All Laughed
Zoe Lund, Ms. 45
Liza Minnelli, Arthur
Dee Wallace, The Howling
Best Supporting Actor
Jack Albertson, Dead and Buried
Griffin Dunne, An American Werewolf in London
John Lithgow, Blow Out
Christopher Walken, Pennies from Heaven
Nicol Williamson, Excalibur
Best Supporting Actress
Colleen Camp, They All Laughed
Sarah Douglas, Superman II
Lisa Eichhorn, Cutter's Way
Pam Grier, Fort Apache the Bronx
Edith Massey, Polyester (yes, seriously)
Best Director
Peter Bogdanovich, They All Laughed
John Carpenter, Escape from New York
Michael Mann, Thief
George Miller, The Road Warrior
Steven Spielberg, Raiders of the Lost Ark
Best Original Screenplay
Peter Bogdanovich & Blaine Novak, They All Laughed
Albert Brooks & Monica Johnson, Modern Romance
David Cronenberg, Scanners
Terry Gilliam & Michael Palin, Time Bandits
John Waters, Polyester
Best Adapted Screenplay
Jay Presson Allen & Sidney Lumet, Prince of the City
Jeffrey Allen Fiskin, Cutter's Way
Michael Mann, Thief
Dennis Potter, Pennies from Heaven
John Sayles, The Howling
Best Cinematography
Jordan Cronenweth, Cutter's Way
Dean Cundey, Escape from New York
Andrew Lazlo, Southern Comfort
Gordon Willis, Pennies from Heaven
Vilmos Zsigmond, Blow Out
Best Original Score
Brian May, The Road Warrior
Jack Nietzsche, Cutter's Way
Howard Shore, Scanners
Tangerine Dream, Thief
John Williams, Raiders of the Lost Ark
