Oscar Awards season: It’s my favourite time of the year
Some people look forward to Super Bowl Sunday, but my Super Bowl every year is Oscar Awards Sunday.
From my teens to my thirties I would host an annual Academy Awards Party. Leading up to the big night my friends and I would run off to Toronto for a triple bill of films to make sure we'd come into the evening well informed.
I'd research for my Oscar ballot by reading every article and review in Entertainment Weekly, Premiere and Variety. On Oscar night my walls would be decorated with pictures of all the nominees. Guests could win prizes for correctly guessing the most winners.
My friend Tamu would bring her delicious homemade Oscar shaped cookies to share. Be happy you weren't my neighbour that night. If one of our favourite artists won an Oscar, we would yell and scream like football fans would if their team scored a touchdown. It was an event.
Sadly many of my movie-loving pals moved away. I also moved away from cable television to streaming which made it a lot harder to watch live events like the Academy Awards from home. My big Oscar party may have been put on pause, but watching the Oscars each year was not. When our two independent local movie theatres, The Westdale and The Playhouse, decided to make screening the Oscars live an annual event I was so in.
The Oscars have had some pretty infamous and embarrassing moments, but for us awards-show junkies it's those beautiful iconic moments that we live for. A magnetic live performance of one of the Best Song nominees. An amazing outfit. An unforgettable and inspiring speech. Winners who smash that glass ceiling and break barriers.
If you stripped away all the spectacle of the Oscars I would still tune in, because my core motivation for watching them is a passion and love for the art of cinema.
I'm the movie nerd who would stay up late and watch Siskel & Ebert before going to bed when I was a kid. After reading Leonard Maltin's annual book of movie reviews on my father's bookshelf from cover to cover, I would then dig into the works of Roger Ebert, Pauline Kael and more. After consuming their collective wisdom they would inspire me to go to my local library to borrow all the classic films, which they deemed essential viewing for any cinephile.
This year's awards season I am cheering on the creative team from Everything Everywhere All At Once," which has been nominated for 11 Oscars. I am especially rooting for Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan to win in their acting categories. I saw this film in the theatre and later bought it on Blu Ray. Was blown away by its sheer audacity. Laughed. Cried. Shouted out OMG more than once. And who knew two rocks speaking to each other in silence with only subtitles would make you cry?
The 95th Academy Awards will air live on March 12, 2023. The Westdale and Playhouse have both confirmed that they will be screening the Oscars live again this year. Maybe I will see you there?
Lyla Miklos (she/her) is a queer feminist labour activist, broadcast journalist, education worker, publicist, vocalist, UU & Trekkie.
Lyla's Favourite Films of 2022
The Banshees of Inisherin"
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"
Everything Everywhere All At Once"
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery"
Nope"
RRR"
She Said"
Tar"
Turning Red"
Women Talking"