Must Watch Oscar-Worthy Films

Full disclosure.

The last time I watched a Filipino movie was in support of my dearest friend Joey Paras. He was the lead in Last Supper No. 3, a comedy film screened in 2009 at Cinemalaya. It was, hands down, the. funniest. shit. ever. I died laughing. It won Cinemalaya Best Film and if you haven't watched it, I suggest you find yourself a DVD copy. The best time to enjoy it would be when you feel tired and down cause really, it's the best. Amused would be an understatement. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't usually watch Tagalog movies. Not because I'm hoity toity but because I simply do not like the type of movies being offered to us viewers. I am a fan of the old ones e.g. Himala, Kakaba Kaba Ka Ba, Itim, Maynila Sa Kuko ng Liwanag etc. and I think if we can get more people to watch movies like these then we would have a more discerning audience. The sad thing right now is film studios deliver only what the public demands. There is not enough quality and meaningful films shown on a much broader scale. The great ones we can only watch through independent film screenings and most of the time, it's a challenge for producers to even get people to finance commercial distribution. 

But I know there's still hope. We have a lot of good directors, writers, DOPs out there just waiting to be given the chance to show how great they are. Speaking of, how intriguing is Six Degrees of Separation to Lilia Cuntapay?

Sorry, I'm going way off-point here.

How does the above sentiment relate to my post?

It's just AWARDS, really.

My interest in following how the awards season is shaping up in the US and UK is much higher compared to my interest in the local scene which I would say is close to nil. 

Right now, The New York Film Critics have already released their winners. It's the Spirit Awards next. 

We're pretty much counting down the days till the Oscar night but given that there's still months to go, right now, my mission is to watch all the films that have been given recognition so I can give my predictions before the Oscars (that's so preposterous, don't you think? = p ).

Oscar predictions = always a fun (and pretentious) thing to do.

Here's what I have in my list:

1. Albert Nobbs 

Award winning actress Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs) plays a woman passing as a man in order to work and survive in 19th century Ireland. Some thirty years after donning men's clothing, she finds herself trapped in a prison of her own making. Mia Wasikowska (Helen), Aaron Johnson (Joe) and Brendan Gleeson (Dr. Holloran) join a prestigious, international cast that includes Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Janet McTeer, Brenda Fricker and Pauline Collins. Rodrigo Garcia directs from a script that Glenn Close, along with Man Booker prize-winning novelist John Banville and Gabriella Prekop, adapted from a short story by Irish author George Moore. Source

2. The Iron Lady 

The Iron Lady is a surprising and intimate portrait of Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep), the first and only female Prime Minister of The United Kingdom. One of the 20th century's most famous and influential women, Thatcher came from nowhere to smash through barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male dominated world. Source

3. The Tree of Life 

From Terrence Malick, the acclaimed director of such classic films as Badlands, Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950's. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. Through Malick's signature imagery, we see how both brute nature and spiritual grace shape not only our lives as individuals and families, but all life. Source

4. The Artist 

Hollywood 1927. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), it seems the sky's the limit - major movie stardom awaits. THE ARTIST tells the story of their interlinked destinies. Source

5. The Descendants 

From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar-winning SIDEWAYS, set in Hawaii, THE DESCENDANTS is a sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family's land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries. Source

6. Martha Marcy May Marlene 

Martha Marcy May Marlene stars Elizabeth Olsen as Martha, a damaged woman haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, who struggles to reassimilate with her family after fleeing a cult. Source

7. Moneyball 

Based on a true story, Moneyball is a movie for anybody who has ever dreamed of taking on the system. Brad Pitt stars as Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's and the guy who assembles the team, who has an epiphany: all of baseball's conventional wisdom is wrong. Forced to reinvent his team on a tight budget, Beane will have to outsmart the richer clubs. The onetime jock teams with Ivy League grad Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) in an unlikely partnership, recruiting bargain players that the scouts call flawed, but all of whom have an ability to get on base, score runs, and win games. It's more than baseball, it's a revolution - one that challenges old school traditions and puts Beane in the crosshairs of those who say he's tearing out the heart and soul of the game. Source

8. Margin Call 

Set in the high-stakes world of the financial industry, Margin Call is a thriller entangling the key players at an investment firm during one perilous 24-hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. When an entry-level analyst unlocks information that could prove to be the downfall of the firm, a roller-coaster ride ensues as decisions both financial and moral catapult the lives of all involved to the brink of disaster. Source

9. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is the long-awaited feature film version of John le Carre's classic bestselling novel. The time is 1973. The Cold War of the mid-20th Century continues to damage international relations. Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), a.k.a. MI6 and code-named the Circus, is striving to keep pace with other countries' espionage efforts and to keep the U.K. secure. The head of the Circus, known as Control (John Hurt), personally sends dedicated operative Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) into Hungary. But Jim's mission goes bloodily awry, and Control is forced out of the Circus - as is his top lieutenant, George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a career spy with razor-sharp senses. Estranged from his absent wife Ann, Smiley is soon called in to see undersecretary Oliver Lacon (Simon McBurney); he is to be rehired in secret at the government's behest, as there is a gnawing fear that the Circus has long been compromised by a double agent, or mole, working for the Soviets and jeopardizing England. Supported by younger agent Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), Smiley parses Circus activities past and present. In trying to track and identify the mole, Smiley is haunted by his decades-earlier interaction with the shadowy Russian spy master Karla. The mole's trail remains cold until maverick field agent Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy) unexpectedly contacts Lacon. While undercover in Turkey, Ricki has fallen for a betrayed married woman, Irina (Svetlana Khodchenkova), who claims to possess crucial intelligence. Separately, Smiley learns that Control narrowed down the list of mole suspects to five men. They are the ambitious Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), whom he had code-named Tinker; suavely confident Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), dubbed Tailor; stalwart Roy Bland (Ciaran Hinds), called Soldier; officious Toby Esterhase (David Dencik), dubbed Poor Man; and - Smiley himself. Even before the startling truth is revealed, the emotional and physical tolls on the players enmeshed in the deadly international spy game will escalate... Source

Such an awesome lineup, don't you think? 

The Artist looks interesting because it's a silent film. (Silent film!!!) And I can't wait to see Gary Oldman in that Tinker Tailor spy thriller. I love him. He is, no doubt, one of the finest actors in the industry and I'm already looking forward to his performance. 

Side note, how sick was he in The Professional? That scene where he swallowed the pill and then had that crazy calm look after? I attached the clip below so you can see.

I'm telling you. This man is THE shit. Now I feel like doing a Gary Oldman movie marathon...

Have your say. Which of these movies  is your must watch???