You Lookin' At Me, Oscar?

Is an Oscar all that matters? Director Martin Scorsese is back in theatres with his mobster film The Departed, which is both a critical and box office success. Fantastic right? What more could you want? A little gold statuette, perhaps?

I don’t know that Scorsese sits awake at nights pining for an award that has never been, but if he isn’t, film writers are doing it for him. Wrote David Germain of the Associated Press last week: “Always a bridesmaid at the Oscars, Martin Scorsese is tied with four other filmmakers for awards futility: Five nominations, no wins.”

In an article titled “Has Scorsese finally arrived,” Ed Pilkington of the Guardian News Service opined that “he has not won the Oscar for best director, an honour that he has unashamedly coveted,” added later, “Come on Academy, give him his blasted Oscar.”

As a result, the relative merits of The Departed will be buried under a flurry of articles about how Scorsese is the Susan Lucci of the Academy – remember this goes on until February. It’s true that he has always been left empty handed when the director awards are handed out, missing for The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Goodfellas, The Last Temptation of Christ and Raging Bull. But he has had a stellar career, with a filmography anyone could be envious of. If anything, all it shows how wrong the Oscar voters have been – Kevin Costner for Dances With Wolves over Goodfellas anyone? An award would be fantastic, but it’s not the end all, be all it has been made out to be.

Of course it may not matter anyway. I do okay with my Oscar predictions, but I’m nowhere near the prognosticator that Nathanial over at Film Experience is. I think he tracks the races practically from the days after the statues are handed out and has an uncanny ability to pick the winners. According to his latest list, The Departed won’t even get a Best Picture nod, so Scorsese could be snubbed once again. Ah well.