The Long Red Carpet

Imagine it's Oscar night. There's a particular buzz in the air, not unlike the usual Oscar buzz, but a little more palpable, a little more grand. The type of buzz that comes from a Best Actor lineup like this:

Brando. Deniro. Nicholson. Pacino.

Can't think of a year when all four of the greatest actors of the last half-century made a film, let alone an Oscar-worthy performance? If you said no, you're probably right, but this isn't your typical Oscar night.

Imagine Julianne Moore, nominated for Best Actress, trying to scribble an adequate acceptance speech in case she beats out Meryl Streep, Sissy Spacek, and Maria Falconetti, a woman who died before every speaking a word on camera (or drawing a negative review).

Imagine Almodovar and Jeunet hobnobbing with Fellini and Antonioni, all nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. Then there's Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen, masters of their craft today, wondering if they have the funny to compete with W.C. Fields and Peter Sellers.

Christopher Walken is present, cracking jokes at a round table with Anthony Hopkins and James Caan. Francis Ford Coppola is beaming, having directed the only movie with to garner two nominations. Sellers and Brando are the other double nominees, each honored as an actor and for a character he portrayed.


This is the latest project in the QHS 200 series. Rather than a small group of us ranking our 100 favorite movies and creating one master list, we went a more democratic route. The original voters spent a few months nominating films from any time and place in each of eight categories, and this weekend, we open up the voting (a four-month process itself) to the public. In June, we'll unveil the winners in each of these categories:

Best Performance (Male)
Best Performance (Female)
Best Comedic Performance
Best Fictional Character
Best Death Scene
Best Nude Scene
Best Use of Music in a Film
Best Foreign Language Film

If you're interested in a full ballot, email me and start filling up your Netflix queue. All I ask is that if you want to vote in a category, you watch all four films nominated in that category. The voting deadline is June 6.

Let the games begin.