Who cares?

I'd like to comment on the Academy Awards for this year and that comment being, I don't care.
My Brother The Film Student maintains that the Academy Awards are overrated. I think everyone probably thinks the Academy Awards are overrated until they are nominated. I don't think the awards mean little to nothing - I just don't get in to them every year.

Wait a minute Laura, I know how into the awards you were last year. Are you saying you only get into the Academy Awards when movies you like are nominated?

No. Before last year the last time I cared about the Academy Awards was 2003. So more rightly I only care about the awards when movies I LOVE are nominated. Movies that touch me deeply and make me think differently about who I am and my place in the world. Movies that STILL make me cry every time I watch them. Movies I had to see six times in movie theatres.
Those are the movies I care about and most of the time I don't care whether they are nominated or not. But when they ARE nominated - it's that much more fun. Otherwise I am able to acknowledge that the awards are mostly political (Witness Denzel Washington not winning as he should have for The Hurricane, and then winning the next year for a mediocre role in Training Days.)

So Laura, are you saying that in 2003 you only cared deeply about Return of the King (award winner for mostly wildly anticipated movie of MY LIFE) and last year you only cared about Brokeback Mountain (second most anticipated movie of my life).

No. I also cared a great deal about CRASH and I was very proud of it for winning Best Picture. I was also SO proud of BBM (we're so close we have appreviations for eachother) for being nominated and interested in how Munich would be acknowledged for what it brought (or didn't bring) into the dialogue about terrorism.

But how can you say you cared about CRASH when we never heard you talk about it or write about it on your blog (the blog you temporarily renamed Brokeback Bloggin') ?
Well, in an early blog entry I explained that the subject of racial privilege is a sensitive one that deserves much care and attention when discussing, so I left off writing about CRASH on my blog - as important a film as I believe it was - because I like to reserve such delicate issues for conversations when I'm drunk.

I guess what I'm trying to say is it is not every year films come around that I get so emotionally invested in them that I care whether they win awards. Most of the time good movies are good movies and whether or not they win doesn't change how much I love them. I'm proud to see the movies I love get nominated and win, but it doesn't always happen. (I was shocked by the way to realize as I did in high school that The Dark Crystal never won anything!)

Maybe I haven't seen enough movies this year to care who even gets nominated. (except for Earagon.) Or maybe after such an emotionally exhausting 2006 - I need to take a year off.

Needless to say when another one comes around that I care about - I will let you know.