With the recent rumblings that the WGA strike may soon be coming to a close, the attention of movie-lovers worldwide has turning back where it historically belongs this time of year — Oscar speculation! Now that it's looking like Oscar Night™ will have all of the glitz that we've grown to expect, those in the know can once again attempt to predict who will go home with a golden statuette, and who will be marooned in their seats or possibly even swearing to themselves within camera-range, a la Samuel L. Jackson in 1995.
Online Oscar speculation tends to be a hit-and-miss affair- plenty of self-appointed experts, but very little in the way of in-depth analysis. Thank goodness for The Film Experience's 3rd Annual Oscar Symposium, traditionally the cream of the crop for pre-Oscar discussion. Hosted as always by self-professed Oscar obsessive Nathaniel Rogers, this year's Symposium asembles a Murderer's Row of talent from the cinema blogosphere, including MSN's Kim Morgan, Nick Davis of Nick's Flick Picks, prognosticator extraordinaire Sasha Stone of Awards Daily, and longtime Screengrab favorite Dennis Cozzalio of Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule.
Whereas most of these affairs tend to devolve into a lot of armchair quarterbacking, what sets the Symposium apart is that the participants aren't afraid to voice their personal opinions on the nominees. Already in its first day of discussion, the parties involved have debated the relative merits of the Best Actor nominees, with Cozzalio taking the road less traveled by championing George Clooney's understated turn in Michael Clayton over the ferocious critics' favorite, Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. Best of all, the relaxed format of the Symposium affords everyone ample opportunities to put forth their opinions in detail, which in these days of blurb-happy "entertainment news" is a most welcome corrective.
The Film Experience's 3rd Annual Oscar Symposium will be continuing through February 7.