Despite this fact—and the Los Angeles Times’ recent, not-so-surprising revelation that the “overwhelmingly white, male” body of Oscar voters doesn’t reflect Hollywood’s demographic makeup, let alone the movie-going public—we still gather in homes across the country to watch a show that, in the best case scenario, ultimately leaves us only partially satisfied.

So whether you’re someone who tries to dazzle your guests by cooking up the toughest recipes from Heston Blumenthal at Home, or more of the sort who chops up a bunch of Ho Hos and Sno Balls and passes them off as finger food, the surefire pleasure of your viewing party lies in themed potables.

Instead, director Michael R. Roskam’s first feature film eschews the familiar for gritty drama and sinewy character study set amid the strange-but-true world of Belgium's “hormone mafia”—criminals who traffic in drugs used to fatten up cattle for slaughter. The focus falls on Jacky Vanmarsenille, an inarticulate, antisocial thug hiding the physical and psychological scars of a traumatic childhood experience.

Roskam’s film and Matthias Schoenaerts’s brawny, transformative breakout performance in the lead role have already drawn comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s collaborations with Robert De Niro on Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, and Nicolas Winding Refn’s work with Tom Hardy on Bronson. Like those filmmakers, Roskam is interested in exploring the fine line between man and animal. Jacky’s feral nature—he communicates in grunts, withdraws from the world, and acts purely on instinct—gives him more in common with the cows on the farm than the people he struggles to connect with.

2. Gary Oldman: The Scarlet Letter
Oscar Nominee: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

So when Sheila Nevins, HBO president of Documentary and Family Programming, saw the tiny wire story buried deep inside The New York Times in 1993, she sent documentary filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky to investigate.

“Sheila saw that story as the Satanic worshipers who killed the Cub Scouts,” recalled Berlinger, whose 1992 documentary Brother’s Keeper had impressed Nevins. “At the time the country was coming off a wave of Satanic hysteria … It was a real life River’s Edge.”

Does this make me an expert on awards shows? Certainly not. But each year, those of us who go to the Sprits and are not invited to the Oscars the next night watch the Oscars from home and note how less fun they seem—even (or maybe especially) for those who are actually there.

So, as the Oscars and Spirit Awards approach, I was asked by The Daily Beast to come up with some suggestions for making the Academy Awards a bit more fun to watch. It’s likely they asked a dozen or so people and I’m the only one stupid enough to accept [Editor’s note: Not true! He was the only one we asked!] and it’s highly doubtful that the Academy will give a hoot what I think. But I decided to take up the challenge.

Directed by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin, Undefeated is the real-life version of NBC’s acclaimed drama Friday Night Lights—albeit twice as poignant. The film chronicles the 2009 high-school football season of the Manassas Tigers, a ragtag bunch of inner-city black kids from a destitute section of Memphis that used to be the crime capital of America. Since its founding in 1899, the Manassas football team had never won a playoff game, and in recent years, even resorted to participating in “pay games” where their squad was bused to richer schools several hours away to get their asses kicked in exchange for a few thousand dollars, which would then be funneled back into the underfinanced Manassas football program.

In stepped Bill Courtney, who joined the school as coach in 2004, and immediately changed the culture. He starting Manrise, a booster club to help fund the football team, ending the embarrassing “pay games”; convinced a group of talented eighth-grade players to stay in town and play ball at Manassas; and mentored his troubled kids on and off the field. Coach Bill’s efforts finally paid off in 2009. His gifted eighth-grade recruits—led by O.C. Brown and overachiever Montrall “Money” Brown at the offensive-tackle positions—are now seniors, and Manassas has finally fielded a team with the potential to win the school’s first playoff game ever.

For screenwriter and fellow nominee Peter Straughan, the Oscar nod is more bittersweet. His wife and co-writer, Bridget O’Connor, succumbed to cancer in September 2010 at the age of 49. Straughan has struggled with how he should feel about the honor, going from deep sadness to celebrating the nomination as a tribute to his late wife’s work. He also says it was terrifying for them to take a stab at one of Britain’s most beloved novels, not to mention competing with the BBC’s beloved 1979 miniseries (shown on PBS here, and starring Alec Guinness as Smiley). Last weekend, Straughan and the late O’Connor won a BAFTA award for best adapted screenplay.

But the proof is in the work, and now Straughan, Oldman, and others on the production are already talking about a sequel. Here, Oldman and Straughan discuss key scenes in the movie, which was helmed by Swedish director Tomas Alfredson.   

Of those ranks, perhaps no film’s success is more perplexing than Woody Allen’s ode to Paris.  At the box office, Midnight in Paris is the highest grossing of the director’s 42-film career. It has made dozens of critics’ Top 10 lists, earned Golden Globe nominations, and, now, the director’s first Best Picture Oscar nod since Hannah and Her Sisters earned a spot in 1986.

What is unfortunate about this, however, is despite the plaudits, a good hard look at Midnight in Paris reveals a film that—far from a return to form for the iconic director—is miles from his best works. In fact, for its sentimentality, its lazy humor, its unpleasant caricatures, it may in fact be one of his worst. Certainly the only way Midnight in Paris is one of the best films of the year is if Oscar is grading on a scale where ancient icons get 95 points just for showing up.

The movie about the life of The New York Times’ legendary street photographer has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 98 out of 100 and had big-name critics like Kenneth Turan and Lisa Schwarzbaum swimming in a sea of superlatives.

In January, it got a Directors Guild Nomination for Best Documentary, leading many to believe it was on target for an Academy Award.

Bichir, 48, has been in the spotlight since the age of 14 and, to date, has a whopping 62 film credits to his name—though only a handful of those titles may sound even vaguely familiar to those living north of the Mexican border. Che, Steven Soderbergh’s 2008 portrayal of the iconic Cuban revolutionary, Che Guevara, featured Bichir as the alternately loathsome and admirable Fidel Castro. Bichir’s stint on Season 4 of Weeds as the drug lord and mayor of Tijuana, Esteban Reyes (who then married the show’s heroine, Nancy Botwin in Season 5), may also ring a few bells. But with Bichir’s body of work featuring largely Spanish titles, A Better Life comes as the actor’s big American break—and he knows it too.

“I’m overwhelmed for having my name among these incredible actors,” Bichir said about his surprise Oscar nod in a statement to Us Weekly. “This could have never happened if Chris Weitz was not the head of this film … I dedicate this nomination to those 11 million human beings who make our lives easier and better in the U.S.”

Their exchange revolved around Davis’s comments on finding work as an African-American actress. Davis, who has won praise for her starring role in The Help, was attempting to explain the difficult plight of being black and female in the movie industry. “I’m a 46-year-old black woman who really doesn’t look like Halle Berry, and Halle Berry is having a hard time,” said Davis.

No doubt hoping to forge a sisterly bond, Theron rushed in to reassure Davis that she was indeed “hot’’ and naively implied that a simple change of attitude would make a world of difference. Her exact words—“You have to stop saying that, because you’re hot as shit.’’

Here are some of the video highlights. And make sure to check out our exclusive behind-the-scene extras from our iPad edition, too, which is free for magazine subscribers. 

1. Clooney: ‘It Was a Terrible Job!’

The brave, slim-budget French production, which also topped the Critics’ Choice Awards on Thursday with four prizes, including Best Picture and Best Director for Michel Hazanavicius, and has received nods from the Screen Actors’ and Directors’ Guilds, has become the Oscar favorite for Best Picture. The Artist’s story of love, fear, and reinvention is a tip of the hat to cinema past and yet manages an exhilarating freshness.

French star Jean Dujardin, who won the Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy on Sunday, has already taken top acting honors at Cannes for his portrayal of George Valentin, a late-1920s silent-film icon troubled by the dawn of the talkies. The swoonworthy Valentin—Errol Flynn moves, Clark Gable mustache, and irresistible screendog sidekick—suddenly falls out of favor when the studios opt for sound. Peppy Miller (Berenice Béjo) is the admiring ingénue who gets her big break on the soundstage. As George's and Peppy’s careers crisscross, the rising young actress and the brooding fallen star find love. (Here comes the spoiler. You’ve been warned!) Dujardin has only one spoken line in the film, two little words at the end that seem to explain everything.