How To Watch As Many Oscar Nominees As Possible Before Sunday

LoquaciousMuse February 23, 2012

If you’re like me, you’re a little obsessed with the Oscars. Or a lot. A lot obsessed. Devastatingly obsessed. Which means you do everything in your power to see every nominated movie before the ceremony. I personally have seen every American narrative nominated except Real Steel, W.E. and Kung Fu Panda 2, but have sadly only seen one doc (Pina), and haven’t seen Cat in Paris, Bullhead, In Darkness or Monsieur Lazhar. I plan on seeing every short before Sunday except for the two doc shorts not available to press. Not bad, right? So I thought I would help point you in the right direction to accomplishing close or beyond this same my-life-is-kind-of-sad-isnt-it? feat.

Now In Theaters
Oscar Shorts: Playing in a lot more theaters than I had previously suspected! Head here for showtimes. The fun thing about watching with an audience is really getting a gage for how people react to them en masse, which has definitely helped me in predicting a winner in years past. Live Action, Animated, and Documentary shorts are all playing now.

Narrative: The Descendants, Hugo 3D, The Iron Lady, Extremely Loud Incredibly Close, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Artist, War Horse, My Week with Marilyn, Albert Nobbs, The Adventures of Tintin, The Muppets (if you’re lucky), W.E.

Also, thanks to AMC, all ten Best Picture nominees will be playing, marathon style, around the country. War Horse, Moneyball, The Tree of Life and The Descendants were last weekend, but for $40 this Saturday, you can catch Hugo in 3D, The Help, Extremely Loud Incredibly Close, The Artist and Midnight in Paris. Plus, you get a free commemorative poster and a $5 AMC card for concessions. In certain markets, for $60, you can see all nine in one day as part of a 24 hour marathon, but….I don’t know if I would recommend that…for your sanity’s sake.

Docs: Pina, Undefeated

Foreign Language: A Separation, Bullhead, In Darkness

On Demand
Oscar Shorts. That’s right! If you don’t live in one of the cities playing the shorts on the screen, fear not! They are now available on demand on ShortsHD, which you get if you are a customer of Comcast/Xfinity, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Cox Communications, Cablevision, or Bresnan and Charter. While DirecTV carries ShortsHD, I can’t find the Oscar shorts listed as On Demand for the life of me. Live Action and Animated available.

Also available through the In Demand service from those cable providers: Drive, Real Steel, Moneyball, The Help, Midnight in Paris, Tree of Life, A Better Life, Bridesmaids, Beginners, Warrior, The Ides of March, Margin Call, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Kung Fu Panda 2, Anonymous. Rio available via HBO On Demand.

Docs: Hell and Back Again, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (HBO)

Streaming

Instant Netflix (7.99/month)
Docs: If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Hell and Back Again

Amazon Instant Video (3.99/Movie)
Narrative: Drive, Real Steel, Moneyball, The Help, Midnight in Paris, Tree of Life, A Better Life, Bridesmaids, Beginners, Warrior, The Ides of March, Margin Call, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Kung Fu Panda 2, Anonymous

Docs: If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Hell and Back Again

DVD/Blu-Ray

Narrative: Drive, Real Steel, Moneyball, The Help, Midnight in Paris, Tree of Life, A Better Life, Bridesmaids, Beginners, Warrior, The Ides of March, Margin Call, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Kung Fu Panda 2, Anonymous, Rio, Rango, Jane Eyre, Puss in Boots (released Friday)

Docs: If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Hell and Back Again

If You Have An All Region Player: A Separation, Footnote (no subtitles), A Cat in Paris, Chico & Rita

Out Of Luck

Monsieur Lazhar, and unless you feel like spending a ton of money to overnight a movie you can play with your all region DVD player, Footnote, Cat in Paris and Chico and Rita may be out of your grasp as well. And if you haven’t caught The Muppets by now, that is certainly the most elusive of the studio pictures, stuck in that place between entering theaters to poor box office (at Thanksgiving) and DVD release (March 20th). It is playing in a few theaters here and there, but unless you live nearby one of them you’re out of luck. But the soundtrack is available, which is what matters most here, right?

So that about does it. Happy watching and if you’re proud of your personal progress in tackling these movies, please let us know in the comments below.

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