My cinematic adventure challenge

You know all about the Best Picture Nominees, and I in my mission watched them all. But the Oscars overlook so many films. The Kermodes addresses this from a critical standpoint, but what about those films which will be worth a watch but not critical darlings?

Here’s my pick of what you should watch instead of the overly publicised 10 Best Picture nominees:

127 Hours : Monsters – British director Gareth Edwards wrote, shot, directed and created the visual effects for this film about a journalist, tasked with accompanying his boss’s daughter to safety, sharing a precarious journey with his charge, where death could come at any second and normal life is both tantalisingly close and hopelessly distant.

Black Swan : Soulboy – Any film with Martin Compston is worth a ticket, this one has him dancing to a Northern Soul beat in 1970s Wigan.

The Fighter: Sons of Cuba – A moving documentary set in the legendary Havana Boxing Academy, a boarding school that hand picks 9-year-old boys, and turns them into the best boxers in the world.

Inception : Scott Pilgrim vs The World - Superb visual style cleverly meshing the lust of a dysfunctional teenager within a comic book/video game setting.

The Kids Are Alright : Abel – A young boy takes on paternal responsibilities when his father abandons the family. The kids may not be alright but they try to cope as best they can.

The King's Speech : Jackboots on Whitehall – An alternative British period piece in which Winston Churchill hides out in lawless Scotland, as an all-star cast voices an alternative animated history of WWII.

The Social Network: Catfish – The other Facebook Movie. Cynical and enlightening, this reminds you how little we really know our online “friends”, as a photographer whose ego is massaged gets embroiled with a mystery artist and her family.

Toy Story 3 : A Town Called Panic – A fun, frenetic Belgian animation, about a Cowboy and Indian’s surprise birthday plans for Horse, which backfire as they attempt to make a homemade gift, destroying their house in the process.

True Grit : The Last Rites of Ransom Pride – In 1910, a young woman tries to take the body of her murdered lover back home to Texas for burial ... with all guns blazing. Stylishly tipping its Stetson to the likes of Peckinpah, Leone and Tarantino, and featuring a genius cast.

Winter's Bone: Winter’s Bone – Watch it or watch it again. It was awesome and the least well known of the Best Picture Nominees. Great performances, I reckon Maddie Ross would concede that Ree has True Grit in hunting down her father to save her family whilst negotiating the underbelly of her rural community.

I hope these choices give you food for thought and much entertainment, once you’ve engaged this spirit of cinematic adventure – seek out the Foreign Language, Documentary & Short film nominees as they are probably all better than the majority of the big 10 and probably worked harder for their nominations (except Biutiful which I’m slightly reluctant to see).

Happy viewing!

Oscars 2011 predictions

• Best Picture. Toy Story 3 was the best of these IMHO, but I would be stunned if it won. Next for me was Winter's Bone. I still haven't seen True Grit (I'm watching it on sunday-very close to the wire!) but my 3 horses in this race are Inception (if Titantic can be LA Confidential this is possible), The Kings Speech and The Social Network. I'm going to go for The Kings Speech based on number of nominations although my heart thinks The Social Network may win.

• Actor in a Leading Role. Colin Firth for the win

• Actress in a Leading Role. Natalie Portman - the first of my "and the award for dedication to getting thin". A fantastic performance and a deserved win. Very glad Jennifer Lawrence was nominated.

• Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale - the second of my "commitment to my craft" oscars. Has he ever won one? If not, again a career of fantastic acting finally rewarded.

• Actress in a Supporting Role: Always a toughie, I think Melissa Leo will edge it as the academy has had their eye on her for a while. Although the same could be said of Amy Adams. I always find this category torture to predict. (Well not last year, but usually). Right I'm going for Jacki Weaver because she's the character I'd be most terrified of meeting.

• Directing: I want Aranofsky, I think David Fincher will get it.

• Writing (Adapted Screenplay): The Social Network. There can and should be no other winner.

• Writing (Original Screenplay): Whilst Inception was truly orginal, The Kids Are Alright was very well written so that's my bet.

• Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3. As I said, actually my Best Film of the year.

• Art Direction: Alice In Wonderland - although The Kings Speech set was designed by a Brit from the West Midlands so if she wins I'll be happy.

• Cinematography. Roger Deakins has been nominated 9 times without a win. It needs to be done.

• Costume Design. I hate betting against Sandy Powell, who I suspect has won every time she was nominated in the past, but the costumes for Alice In Wonderland were superb and so that's where my money is.

• Documentary (Feature): No clue. I think Restrepo will get it, but both Exit Through The Gift Shop and Inside Job are very popular which would be a more similar choice to last year's The Cove.

• Film Editing: The Social Network was a pretty amazing job.

• Foreign Language Film: I always like these more than the Best Film nominees so it's a bit Sophie's choice for me. I haven't been able to see them all but I didn't really care about Biuitful and whilst I love Susanne Bier (In a Better World) and loved Days of Glory by the director of Outside The Law, I think Incendies might take it.

• Makeup. The Wolfman. No clue, based purely on Rick Baker's form.

• Music (Original Score). Between The Social Network and The Kings Speech in my opinion. The Kings Speech.

• Music (Original Song). Randy Newman for Toy Story 3. That man knows how to torture the heartstrings.

• Sound Editing. Inception - because it will win well in technical categories

• Sound Mixing. The Social Network - I totally stole this one from Roger Ebert - he should know.

• Visual Effects. Inception. Folding Paris alone is an achievement and there were several more which made me watch this film twice.

I've only watched Day and Night so based on an online trailer of the shorts nominees.

• Documentary (short subject): Killing in the name.

• Short Film (Animated): Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary). I wanted to hunt this down to watch it based on the trailer.

• Short Film (Live Action): Na Wewe. This one looked like it had the potential to be a feature based on about 4 seconds of footage.

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