Sunday, Feb. 22, 2009

Columbus weighs in on Oscar nominations

The 81st Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, will be hosted by Hugh Jackman at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood tonight.

But Hollywood is a long way from Georgia and some people haven’t even heard of several of the nominated movies. So does anyone really pay attention to Oscar nominations?

The movies nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards this year are “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk,” “The Reader” and “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Karen Overstreet, 18, of Hamilton, Ga., said the only movie she’d heard of that was nominated was also the only one she saw, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

“It was good. It was cute,” she said. “But I haven’t heard of the others.”

The nominations don’t affect what movies Overstreet chooses to see. “(I) usually (see) what’s gotten a lot of publicity,” she said.

Recently, she went with two friends to see “Friday the 13th.”

Bobby Coward of St. Mary’s, Ga., most recently saw “Taken.” Though he didn’t know what movies were nominated for Academy Awards this year, he said that the nominations usually “have a lot to do with” the movies he sees.

Lorenzo Stathums, 27, of Columbus doesn’t think the movies nominated deserve an honor.

“Big movies don’t get the recognition they deserve,” said Stathums, noting that high grossing films like “X-Men” and “Transformers” often get overlooked.

He generally pays more attention to movies that haven’t been nominated for Oscars.

“I’d rather see a movie that’s not gotten considerations than one that has considerations,” Stathums said.

His favorite movie from the past year is “Pineapple Express.”

Kori Lee, 19, and Andrea Morgan, 18, both of Columbus, didn’t know what movies were nominated for the Oscars.

“I heard that ‘Milk’ and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ were supposed to be good,” Morgan said. “And that ‘Benjamin Button’ is too long.”

Though Lee said she recently saw “The Unborn” — and didn’t really like it — Morgan can’t remember the last time she saw a movie at the theater.

“If we hear it’s supposed to be good, we’ll try harder to go see it,” Morgan said.

According to the Expert Oscar Picks at Fandango, five out of six experts predict “Slumdog Millionaire” will take Best Picture, as well as Best Director. For what it’s worth, it also won Best Picture at the Golden Globes.

Tune in to ABC at 8 p.m. for the star-studded action.