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BlogNosh 02/20/08

Everybody’s mad about those Foreign Language Oscar nominations, right? Not Nick Dawson. At the FILMMAKER blog, he notes that nominated films that would have otherwise been deemed too small for US distribution “magically” land deals once it becomes possible to “put the words ‘Oscar’ and ‘Nominated’ in big letters on the poster…As a result, this year Oscar has all but guaranteed us the new films from Nikita Mikhalkov, Andrzej Wajda and Sergei Bodrov ??? three undeniably great directors ??? in addition to films like Persepolis, Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days and The Orphanage.” Much more at the link.
At Big Media Vandalism, Odienator gives us a homework assignment: “Rent MGM’s That’s Entertainment III to hear Lena Horne tell you how badly she was treated by MGM. She’ll also show you the aforementioned cut pieces of her Cabin in the Sky performance. It’s worth it. She’s singing a song in a bubble bath.”
“Technological innovation, in my opinion, not only created the movies, but insured that the art form would remain an important part of American culture over more than a century.” So says Scott Kirsner, by way of introducing a post counting out Five Oscar Wins That Shaped The Movies.
At The Huffington Post, Jack Donaldson explains why he has yet to join the backlash against much-reviled Oscar winners such as American Beauty, Forrest Gump and Crash: “They are the Billy Joel’s of movies, and I’m a big Billy Joel fan.” I applaud the closet-exit on that score, but it’s a bit troubling that Donaldson really doesn’t seem to realise that the Juno backlash is totally in progress.