The Academy Awards are this Sunday, and though millions of Americans will watch the ceremony and hundreds of blogs like this one will eagerly fill you in on red carpet fashion hits and misses Monday morning, very few people seem to actually care about the nominated films and the awards themselves. Sure, there are critics and hardcore film nerds who have been offering predictions about the winners since before many of the nominated films were even released, but for the most part, the Oscars are viewed as a boring celebration of snobbery, a chance for the Hollywood elite to publicly pat themselves on the back in a 14-hour televised circle jerk.

The question is why? How did the Oscars get so out of touch? Americans love movies, celebrities, and competition; the Oscars should be a high-class Super Bowl, a chance to see our favorite films of the year compete for the highest honor in show biz. Instead, it's yet another opportunity for Hollywood insiders to try to shape our tastes, to tell you what films you should have been dropping your $10.50 on instead of plunking down to see Transformers 2 for the fourth time.
Don't get me wrong; most of my favorite films are critical darlings and award winners. I'm the only person I know who's seen all ten films nominated for Best Picture this year. So yes, I'm one of those "hardcore film nerds" I just mentioned, and even I watch the Oscars in confusion and disbelief every year. The Academy seems to go out of its way to select winners that will alienate the average moviegoer and remind him exactly why he never doesn't give a crap about these "artsy" films or mega-budget award shows.

For an example of this, one needs only to look at this year's front runners for Best Picture: The Social Network and The King's Speech. One of these films will almost certainly go home with the night's big prize on Sunday, and, sadly, I predict The King's Speech will emerge victorious. The Academy has the rare opportunity to give the biggest award in movies to a film that is not only the year's best, but is also a very timely and uniquely American piece of filmmaking. Instead, they'll likely do what they've always done: Give it to a snooty foreign "prestige picture" which few Americans have seen and even fewer would enjoy. The King's Speech is a fine film, but The Social Network is the best reviewed movie of the year and a hit with audiences nationwide. However, the Academy loves classy tearjerkers with British accents for reasons that even most of its members will never understand, and so The King's Speech is almost certain to get the top prize. I hope that I'm wrong and that the Academy gives the nod to The Social Network, the first great film about the 21st Century. Sadly, Oscar voters will probably pass on yet another opportunity to prove that they're something other than a group of aging elitists.