The rules of the Oscar Sprint™ are are simple and finite:

1. Wait for the Academy to release nominations.
2. Make a list (I love an Excel spreadsheet) of every single movie that is nominated for every single award in every single televised category (INCLUDING SHORTS).
3. Mark you calendar with the date of the awards, and see if you can cram them all in before the ceremony airs.

WORTH NOTING:

• There’s a lot of cross-pollination between categories, so your list should be long, but not impossible long.
• If you’re a movie person who doesn’t waste their cinema dollars during the year on horror and kids movies like some people I know, you’ve probably already seen a bunch of these.
• Depending on the movie theatres near you and the amount of money in your bank account, you may not have access to a lot of these films on the big screen. Luckily, Netflix and friends are going hard in the Oscar game right now, so more shit is streaming than ever (shake your friends down for passwords). I do try to patronize my local theatres (Nickelodeon Cinema and PMA Films if you want to stalk me) as much as possible, but I also Redbox/online rent, and illicitly download/stream when I need to. No judgment here – especially if the movie is directed or produced by toxic waste dumps à la Quentin Tarantino or Woody Allen. Even when I have to watch a grainy bootleg where you can hear crinkling candy plastic sounds and see people get up to use the bathroom, STILL COUNTS.
• If you have an art house theatre near you, check the schedules, because they frequently do runs of all the shorts (one program animated and one program live action). If you miss them, it is nearly impossible to find another way to watch.
• Do a fanciful recap with emojis to inform your friends of your very important opinions so that they don’t accidentally rent Green Book.

Join the 2022/23 Sprint!

THE ARCHIVE:

• 2018/19 Final Sprint & Recap
• Lol 2019/20
• Eh… 2020/21