My tenth annual Academy Awards

Well, it may be a bit delayed, but here's my Oscar entry --

I can tell you the exact date my love of film began -- December 19, 1997. The night I first saw Titanic. Now, I think it would sound cooler to say my interest in movies had been sparked by something like Pulp Fiction or Casablanca or El Mariachi, but the truth is it was in fact the highest grossing film of all time that caught my attention. Ah, well. So much for my indie cred.

So, here's the story from the beginning -- My best friends and I went to see Titanic on opening night and stumbled out of the theater three and a half hours later arm in arm crying our eyes out. I think we scared the people waiting to go in for the next showing. Over the next few months, everyone went back to see it again and again. I began to feel a bit like Charlie Bucket only opening two Wonka bars, since I only saw it two or three times -- I knew girls who saw it over ten times! (no wonder it made over a billion dollars) But I watched all the behind-the-scenes specials and interviews I could find. These opened up a whole new world to me. I had seen movies before, but I never really thought much about how they were made. This was back in the days before DVDs (gasp!) with special features. Suddenly I was interested not only in Leo and Kate, but also in James Cameron's other projects. And knowing that the hand seen drawing Rose in the movie is in fact Cameron's and other such fascinating tidbits.

My love of Titanic naturally led me to the 1998 Oscars. Billy Crystal hosted and I still remember parts of his opening songs about the Best Picture nominees ("It's Gilligan, the Skipper too, the propeller guy and the ice!"). I learned something important that first year -- you need to have someone to root for. Of course in 1998 it was Titanic all the way for me and I felt personally slighted by any losses. Then the following year, the Academy really sealed the deal and made me a viewer for life by making my pick, the underdog Shakespeare in Love, Best Picture over favorite Saving Private Ryan. I realize I may get hate mail for saying this, but that win made me so happy, I literally got up and jumped up and down during the acceptance speech.

So, in subsequent years I have generally tried my best to cram for the Oscars by watching as many nominated films as possible. This has been somewhat hampered the past three years since I've had to rely on DVDs alone, and unfortunately am not eligible for Academy screeners. So, my big Oscar pick for 2008 was Once, which was only nominated for Best Original Song. It won (yay!) so I consider the show a success, especially since Jon Stewart brought star Marketa Irglova back out on stage to give her part of the acceptance speech after she and Glen Hansard were played off. I also learned, from the helpful montage, that I have seen 29 of the 80 Best Picture winners including every one from Titanic through The Departed. I guess I just need to get caught up on those older films!