The 2012 Oscars and How "Best" Almost Never Means "Favorite"

By Dustin Rowles | Think Pieces | January 10, 2013 |

By Dustin Rowles | Think Pieces | January 10, 2013 |

If there’s one thing that putting together our 10 Most Rewatchable Films of 2012 demonstrated, it is this: There’s a huge difference between what is the best, and what are our “favorites.” In our own lists, there were three crossovers: Looper, Moonrise Kingdom, and Safety Not Guaranteed . None of those were nominated for Best Picture by the Academy this year. In fact, looking at the 2012 nominees for Best Picture, there are exactly two I’d watch a second time: Silver Linings Playbook and Django Unchained, although I’m sure there are many who’d also give Les Mis a second viewing.

The others? Great films, but none of them will be occupying space on my DVD shelf. It’s probably why most of them won’t be lasting movies, either. To truly survive the ages, a film needs to be rewatched, shared with others, passed down to our new generations. I think The Hurt Locker is a brilliant film, but I’m not going to watch it again with friends or family, and I’m certainly not going to watch it on a Saturday night with the kids now or in ten years. Most Oscar films are watched because they’re Oscar films: People feel obligated to see what all the fuss is about, and when they’re over, we often sit in stunned silence, nod our heads with approval, commend the actors on their brilliant performances, and then we watch Fight Club or The Princess Bride again.

Still: I don’t care what people say: The Oscars matter. They matter because there’s money involved; they matter because they generate millions of news headlines; they matter because the horse race can be entertaining; and they matter because they’re often the only reason many people will even see the films being nominated. Whether they’re an accurate representation of what’s best is anybody’s guess, but what is for certain is that they’re rarely an accurate representation of what people will be watching five, ten or 30 years from now.

Look: The movie we best remember from 1983 is Return of the Jedi. In 1984, that title belongs to Ghostbusters and Temple of Doom. In 1985, it was Back to the Future. 1986: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Stand By Me. In 1987 it was Dirty Dancing. In 1988, it was Big and Die Hard. Those are the movies from those years that will be watched and rewatched, that will be fondly remembered, that will be shared with future generations. How many Best Picture nominations do they have combined? Zero (there’s a couple of screenplay nominations, one acting nod, and a lot of technical nominations among them). But ask someone under 30 if they’ve ever seen A Passage to India or Terms of Endearment or Amadeus, and you’re more likely than not to get a blank stare.

All of which is to say: Best doesn’t mean favorite, and best certainly doesn’t mean classic. There’s a pretty good chance that audiences will trickle out and see the films that are nominated, and even more may run out and see the Best Picture winner (unless it’s Amour), but chances are, most of the nominated films will rarely be spoken of again. We’ll be too busy watching The Avengers and Pitch Perfect to give Beasts of the Southern Wild another look.

Below, I’ve taken the liberty of running down the Best Picture nominations since 2005. Check them out. How many have you seen a second time? Of the nearly 50 films, I’ve seen about 20 percent of them a second time. And maybe three or four of them might be watched a third time in the future.

2005

Crash
Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Good Night, and Good Luck
Munich

2006

The Departed
Babel
Letters to Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

2007

No Country for Old Men
Juno
There Will Be Blood
Michael Clayton
Atonement

2008

Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader

2009

The Hurt Locker
Avatar
The Blindside
District 9
An Education
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

2010

The King’s Speech
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are Alright
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

2011

The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
Tree of Life
War Horse