My Academy Award Nomination Journey

[JohnnyV Pictionary Master Find all posts View Profile Close JohnnyV]

I've decided to conduct a life long project, which will have me watching all of the Academy Award nominated movies from 1929 and on. It's an ambitious project, and I might need help in locating movie downloads for some of the older titles.

My first endeavor is to find a copy of "Wings". The first movie to ever win an Academy Award.



I'll be posting updates as I watch these movies, and share my thoughts. Been thinking about creating a blog to chronicle it.

Hope you enjoy, and feel free to share your comments.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

I've thought about something like this. To make it easier, I would start with winners of best picture (splits into b&w and color in the 40s), than other winners, and eventually all nominees.
I've been half-heartedly working on seeing AFI's Top 100 movies.
I have no idea where to find out of print oldies.

[Abin Surly or ewe sirius Find all posts View Profile Close Abin Surly]

I'd check Netflix first.

Are you talking about just "Best Picture" or all of the nominees for each year under "Best Picture"?

[Darth_Primus Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Darth_Primus]

Good luck on your journey. How long do you estimate it will take?

[JohnnyV Pictionary Master Find all posts View Profile Close JohnnyV]

I'd check Netflix first.

Are you talking about just "Best Picture" or all of the nominees for each year under "Best Picture"?

Nominees. This isn't something I'm planning to do in a week, but a multi-year project. I'm doing Netflix for sure, and also checking out YouTube. I already found Wings on there.

Good luck on your journey. How long do you estimate it will take?

I'm thinking years. Some of the earlier nominees are going to be extremely difficult to find, as many only have single versions left. Might have to skip some of them, but I'm going to do my best to find some sort of copy before giving up on one.

[Maverick_GL Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Maverick_GL]

:Moderator:

Here I thought you were going to try to win one yourself.

[Abin Surly or ewe sirius Find all posts View Profile Close Abin Surly]

Nominees. This isn't something I'm planning to do in a week, but a multi-year project. I'm doing Netflix for sure, and also checking out YouTube. I already found Wings on there.

Some of the copyright expired stuff might be on YouTube. You might want to also check out the TCM site for info.

You've set off my OCD. I had to go to Wiki and find the "Big List" and check to see, not just how many I've actually seen, but also how the 'winners' now stack up against the 'also-rans'.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Some of the copyright expired stuff might be on YouTube. You might want to also check out the TCM site for info.

You've set off my OCD. I had to go to Wiki and find the "Big List" and check to see, not just how many I've actually seen, but also how the 'winners' now stack up against the 'also-rans'.

Well, Citizen Kane is an "also ran," which goes to show how bogus AMPAS is. That's why I prefer AFI's list.

[Darth_Primus Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Darth_Primus]

Here I thought you were going to try to win one yourself.

That's what I thought when I read the title of this thread.

[Abin Surly or ewe sirius Find all posts View Profile Close Abin Surly]

Well, Citizen Kane is an "also ran," which goes to show how bogus AMPAS is. That's why I prefer AFI's list.

Well, hind-sight is truly 20/20...plus there were some of my pet peeves about the list, like excluding Empire Strikes Back and Bride of Frankenstein even though they are both better films than the "originals".

I found this on wiki about one film critics reaction:
"On June 26, 1998, the Chicago Reader published an article by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum which offers a detailed response to the movies in the AFI list, as well as criticism of the AFI's appropriation of British films, such as Lawrence of Arabia and The Third Man. Rosenbaum also produced an alternate list of 100 American movies that he felt had been overlooked by the AFI. Rosenbaum chose to present this alternative list alphabetically since to rank them according to merit would be "tantamount to ranking oranges over apples or declaring cherries superior to grapes." The AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list includes five titles from Rosenbaum's list, and the accompanying promotional poster lists the titles in alphabetical order."

I say do both...it could be interesting.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Well, hind-sight is truly 20/20...plus there were some of my pet peeves about the list, like excluding Empire Strikes Back and Bride of Frankenstein even though they are both better films than the "originals".

I found this on wiki about one film critics reaction:
"On June 26, 1998, the Chicago Reader published an article by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum which offers a detailed response to the movies in the AFI list, as well as criticism of the AFI's appropriation of British films, such as Lawrence of Arabia and The Third Man. Rosenbaum also produced an alternate list of 100 American movies that he felt had been overlooked by the AFI. Rosenbaum chose to present this alternative list alphabetically since to rank them according to merit would be "tantamount to ranking oranges over apples or declaring cherries superior to grapes." The AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list includes five titles from Rosenbaum's list, and the accompanying promotional poster lists the titles in alphabetical order."

I say do both...it could be interesting.

Interesting. A non-numbered list would have been better. The ranking (more than exclusions) bothered me.
In both of those instances, the movies don't stand alone, but are clear sequels. In addition, the cultural impact was great for both Frankenstein (which is still really good) and Star Wars. So, to include their sequels at the expense of the originals would've been unthinkable. I do agree, however, it is not a perfect list.

[JohnnyV Pictionary Master Find all posts View Profile Close JohnnyV]

Well, I'm one down and many more to go. I was highly impressed with Wings, as it had been since Metropolis that I watched a silent movie. It's funny because silent or sound, an engaging plot and characters is all that really matters. As Wings had me hooked from the very beginning, and reached a great end.

I highly recommend checking it out, and it's available on YouTube for free.

http://youtu.be/NyZuJlohI84

Giving this Academy Award Winner 4/5 Stars.

My next film is titled The Racket. An interesting factoid about the movie, is that it was banned in the city of Chicago for depicting a corrupt government and police force.

[Bob Sachs Voice of Guy Gardner Find all posts View Profile Close Bob Sachs]

S'cool to have goals ... Mine is to watch Cat in the Hat (animated OR live action CGI version) 50 times between now and May 15th... I've already watched it 21 times, so I should be able to pull this off... If I succeed in my endeavor, I'm buying myself an official Dr. Seuss hat... Mom and Dad always said, "In life, you HAVE to have goals," so I'm trying to make them proud...

[JohnnyV Pictionary Master Find all posts View Profile Close JohnnyV]

Finished The Racket. It was an ok movie, with a pretty simple cops and robbers plot. It was interesting to see it all take place during the prohibition era though. Marie Prevost stole the show; wish she was in it more.

2.5/5 Stars

Next on the list:

[Abin Surly or ewe sirius Find all posts View Profile Close Abin Surly]

Hey...you hadn't posted here in a while and I was curious as to how your 'project' was going. I thought about this thread when TCM was showing an old trailer for "The Doorway to Hell", a pre-code Lew Ayres and Jimmy Cagney movie. How many gangster movies are you "running into"?