What makes an Oscar worth film? Or performance?

I love watching the Academy Awards. Most of it is because of the "pre-show" and watching the Red Carpet arrivals but also because the movies that make the list usually are the best of the best. This year I am on a quest to watch all of the major nominees for Best Film, Best Actress, and Best Actor before the awards next Sunday.

But what makes an Academy Award winning film? I remember back in high school watching Sean Penn in Dead Man Walking and thinking he deserved an award but he didn't win that year. The other one, and this one I'm still terribly bitter over, was Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth. I walked out of that movie (seen in a theater in Mankato, MN) in utter awe of her performance. She took a young, carefree Princess Elizabeth and ended the film with the great queen. In light of the fact that most movies are shot out of sequence it was truly a work of art that she made such a seamless movie showing how Queen Elizabeth came to power. If you haven't seen it yet I highly suggest you do. (Side note: I haven't seen the sequel to the movie yet because I'm afraid it won't live up to the true wonder that was the original.) The fact that she lost to Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love was a huge blow. Shakespeare in Love wasn't a bad movie but it certainly wasn't a great one - and to add insult to shallow insult, Gwyneth's dress that year was atrocious. My final "how the hell could this have happened" comment is the fact that Heath Ledger lost for Brokeback Mountain. His performance in that was nothing less than astounding. If I'm not mistaken he lost to Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Capote. That was a great movie but I don't remember leaving that movie and thinking "Wow. He deserves an award."

So that brings me to what makes a great movie. Is it the ability to make someone cry? Is it the ability to make someone think? Is it the ability to take someone out of the world they are living in and move them into the one on the screen? Who knows. So far this year I've seen 2 of the 5 nominees for best picture. I will have seen the other three by the time the awards are presented next Sunday. I will let you know what I think by then. I have seen Slumdog Millionaire and Milk so far. They were both fantastic but I'm definitely keeping an open mind because while I very much enjoyed both of them neither have blown me out of the water. I guess that's what I'm waiting for. That feeling...that sense of "oh my God, that was brilliant"....that utter awe I got watching Cate Blanchett, Sean Penn, and Heath Ledger. So far I haven't had that moment.