Nerd in the 'Noke

This year marks the ninth year that I've made picks in one form or another for the Academy Awards.  Over those nine years, I have tweaked my process and presentation here and there, always with the goal of making informed picks in as many categories as possible.  In an effort to continue down that path, this year I have listed all twenty four categories being presented during tonight's ceremony, but I will only be sharing my personal pick for nineteen of them.  This is a smaller selection of categories for me than in recent years, but only because I have chosen to exclude categories from which I did not see any  nominees.  I figure that there's no point in wasting anyone's time with completely uninformed shots in the dark!  I have also decided to present my picks this year as though I were one of the people special enough to submit an official ballot.  So the picks that you see below are for the films that I would personally vote for if that were the c...

Room (2015), R, 118 minutes - This week turned out to be a bit more busy than I had originally thought, resulting in my only having the opportunity to sneak in just one of this year's Oscar nominated films that I had yet to see: Room, based on Emma Donoghue's novel of the same name from 2010 (which I have not read). Not to be confused with The Room (2003) , which is widely regarded as one of the worst films of all time (I have not seen it myself), Room tells a story that is a bit difficult to describe.  The subject matter, beginning with abduction and neglect is dark and depressing.  On the other hand, later portions of the film are inspiring and depict a wonderful sense of innocence and wonder. Jack (Jacob Tremblay) and his mother Joy (Brie Larson) live in a small space they refer to as 'room', which is locked from the outside at all hours by their captor Old Nick (Sean Bridgers).  They are provided with the bare necessities: a bed, a sink, a bathtub, a table wi...