oscar v. spirit

with each year that passes, i lose more and more faith in the oscars. while the public cares about the academy awards 10x more than all the other awards shows combined, i'm of the opinion that the academy membership has shown a penchant for doing is choosing the wrong movie. i suspect their track record with actors is probably better, but let's not exaggerate their competence in this regard either. julia roberts, best actress for erin brockovich. unbelievably, that is no joke.

so with that in mind, i've decided to test whether the oscars even deserve the label best movie award, let alone best award overall (not that there's much competition outside of film, the grammys, are you fucking with me?). i'd say the last 11 years of best pictures should provide a rough indicator of recent performance.

Year	Oscars	ISPs	Winner
2007	The Departed	Little Miss Sunshine	Oscars
2006	Crash	Brokeback Mountain	Spirits
2005	Million Dollar Baby	Sideways	Spirits
2004	LOTR: The Return of the King	Lost in Translation	Spirits
2003	Chicago	Far from Heaven	TBD
2002	A Beautiful Mind	Memento	Spirits
2001	Gladiator	Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon	Spirits
2000	American Beauty	Election	Oscars
1999	Shakespeare in Love	Gods and Monsters	TBD
1998	Titanic	The Apostle	TBD
1997	The English Patient	Fargo	TBD

by my count, that makes the score 5-2, spirits. i suppose the oscars could sweep the four undecided and earn the narrow victory, but the academy needs to be worried. after all, titanic would have been an all-time flub as a nominee, let alone a winner, and chicago wasn't exactly an inspired selection either. losing either of those matchups clinches the academy's loss.

the projected tally looks to end up 7-4 spirits. ouch, that's a drubbing.