Possible list of Oscars films to catch up on

Mike here. Happy New Year all. I've seen films with some of you over the past 2 weeks. A lot of it is mainly to play catch up with films that might be possible Oscar nominees. Some of you told me what you're planning on catching, while being surprised at a few titles that might require attention. Others just plain asked.

So I'll give an unofficial list of probable and possible nominees for some of the major awards. It'll help form a top 10 list of the year for yourself. It's not a complete list; how could it be with no nominations out yet? I consider major nominations to be the following for our Top 10 purposes: Picture, Director, the 4 Acting categories, the 2 Screenplay categories, Foreign Language, Documentary, and Animated Film. For what I think you might believe to be questionable choices, I wrote something in parenthesis explaining.

First I put up those currently in theaters as of this writing. Listed in the order of how I found them in the NY Post:

Notes on a Scandal
The Queen
Children of Men
Dreamgirls
Little Children
The History Boys(for Screenplay Adaptation, maybe)
Volver
Pan's Labyrinth
Letters From Iwo Jima
Happy Feet
Babel
The Departed
The Last King of Scotland(1 or 2 theaters right now, but more in mid-Jan.)
Curse of the Golden Flower(for Foreign Language, maybe)
Venus
Flags of our Fathers
The Pursuit of Happyness(for Will Smith for Actor, maybe)
Stranger Then Fiction(Screenplay only, probably)
Blood Diamond(for Djimon Hounsou for Supporting Actor, maybe)
For Your Consideration(for Catherine O'Hara for Supporting Actress, maybe)


I left out some released films not in New York theaters or on DVD as of this writing: The Lives of Others, Days of Glory, Running With Scissors, Half Nelson, Iraq in Fragments, Shut Up and Sing, Sherrybaby, Flushed Away, Deliver Us From Evil and Hollywoodland.

I also left out some films not in New York yet, but qualified in L.A.: Breaking and Entering, Factory Girl, Arthur and the Invisibles, The Flying Scotsman and Miss Potter(please not this one; this and Blood and Chocolate are the least appealing trailers out there now.).

Any films I left out that are currently in theaters, either won't be nominated, or (in my opinion only) won't receive one in the above mentioned categories.


The next list are those now available on DVD:
United 93
Little Miss Sunshine(both films are currently playing in one theater each, but probably not for long. Easier and definetly cheaper to catch on DVD at this point.)
The Devil Wears Prada
Cars
Monster House
A Scanner Darkly
An Inconvenient Truth
Thank You For Smoking
Wordplay
Jesus Camp(out on video in late Jan)
A Prairie Home Companion(either for Screenplay or a posthumous nom for Altman, both maybes)


One more film to put on this list:

Army of Shadows

This one won't be Oscar nominated, because it was made in 1969. But it finally received a U.S. release last May, and has been in the top 5 of many a critic's list this winter. If you see it, it will be hard to keep it off yours. Currently in Film Forum thru Jan 11, Symphony Space in late Jan, and AMMI in Astoria on Feb 23 and 24.


Trust me, I realize it's borderline impossible to catch all these films by feb 25. I know I won't be able to, but I will go for as many as possible ( I've caught almost half of them going back to May.). There are plenty of films here to help form a top 10 for yourself. I left out some, but that's for another time. Myself, i won't cough up a list until around Feb 25. But here's your handy reference guide of stuff to catch. Print it, write a few titles down. Whatever, here you go. Later.