My Award nominations: Adapted Screenplay

To be honest, there weren't as many formidable contenders for these spots as in other categories. The five you see here went pretty much unchallenged in my opinion, although The Avengers came awfully close, so here's a quick shout out to Joss Whedon and Zak Penn. Now, my actual nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay:

Review - The Sessions

Afflicted with polio from a young age, Berkeley scholar and poet/journalist Mark O'Brien (John Hawkes) spent most of his life in an iron lung, which entombed him like a big metal coffin for the barely living. As he feels the weight of his own mortality weighing down on him, not unlike the pressurized air in the iron lung, he yearns to finally know carnal pleasure. But finding a willing partner has proven a challenge. Even his writterly way with words and decent character unable to overshadow his bodily disorder. With few alternatives, he hires sex therapist Cheryl Cohen Greene (Helen Hunt) – an educated professional who'll make you understand that she's no prostitute – to help Mark reconnect with his bodily sensations and at long last put a notch on his proverbial bedpost.

And so Ben Lewin's The Sessions takes us on Mark's mission to discover the joy of sex, or rather, as it turns out, the joy of the journey that is love. Despite Cheryl's insistence that the relationship between her and Mark must remain strictly a professional one, Mark inevitably develops feelings for his therapist. Even though she can't reciprocate, we can tell that she wishes she could, as the sex surrogacy sessions they embark upon together become liberating for both of them. He finds release from the confines of his own crippled person, and she finds escape from her not entirely satisfying home life.

One Category at a Time: Best Picture (part 2)

Completing last day's 2013 Oscar predictions kick-off, here are the remaining five films I can conceive being in the hunt for next year's Best Picture prize:

Much like the ultimately ill-fated War Horse was twelve months ago, the defacto “frontrunner” on most pundits' lists at this early stage is Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, which will star Daniel Day Lewis as the tall-hatted Civil War president. Based on cast, crew, and concept alone, it seems like a pretty solid contender for the nomination. Even if it tanks, the Speilberg faithful in the Academy can revive it.