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I am record as stating that Kung Fu Panda 2 is a wonderful achievement in storytelling, but its lack of popularity in North America makes it a difficult film to laud. Rango is a masterpiece worthy of winning the award but the Academy messed up me and a lot of other animation films by nominating A Cat in Paris, something I am vaguely aware of and want to watch, and Chico and Rita, something I believe may be a YouTube hoax. My wife subscribes to Animation Magazine and I still have never heard of it. As an aside, between Midnight in Paris and A Cat in Paris, this was a good year in cinema for the City of Lights.

With regards to the failed candidacy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, this is the latest example of AMPAS failing to give David Fincher full credit for his work. An inferior film and an inferior directing effort won last year when The King’s Speech and Tom Hooper bested The Social Network and Fincher. He follows that up with arguably a more impressive achievement by making a Swedish film better than the Swedes did and all he has to show for it are five nominations, only one of them in a major category. I simply do not understand why the Academy continues to underrate his accomplishments. Who made the determination that Chris Nolan and David Fincher are infidels?

The one nomination for which I would laud the Academy is in Best Original Screenplay. An argument could be made that Margin Call is a straight to video release in that it was day and date with theaters and digital download. Obviously, the rules for the Academy Awards allow the selection, but the nomination of J.C. Chandor is a rare instance of forward thinking by voters.

Margin Call is a timely story with a tremendous cast and deserves to be celebrated for its triumphs. I had not given the film any chance for a nomination and I was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong on this one. Of course, it has the same advantage as Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in that it is a Manhattan film targeting Manhattan voters. To a larger point, however, out of all of the major awards selections, this is the one that I think best reflects the coming challenges AMPAS will face as the line between theatrical and digital release grows blurrier.

By the way, if you want a blueprint example of the madness of judging film quality based upon Academy Awards nominations, 2012 provides an all-time example. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which is 100% fresh among top critics at Rotten Tomatoes, earned three nominations. Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which is 25% fresh among top critics at Rotten Tomatoes, also earned three nominations. Epic conclusions in triumphant franchises are no different than cinematic abominations in the eyes of the tech awards crew.

Finally, this was a fantastic weekend for the Mara family, owners of the New York Giants. First, the team that family patriarch Wellington Mara built into a legacy made the Super Bowl once again. Then, the now deceased Mara’s widow, Ann, because a viral video legend when she accosted a deeply confused Terry Bradshaw on live television in front of 50 million viewers. And now Rooney Mara has been nominated for Best Actress for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. That’s a year worth of Happy in 48 hours.

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