This week’s issue of EW is all about the Oscars. I cannot believe how much coverage this magazine devotes to this one event every year. There’s an issue in the summer covering Oscar contenders from the first half of the year. There’s an issue in the fall naming Oscar contenders to watch for in the upcoming prestige-film season. There’s this week’s issue, talking about what is likely to be nominated; then, after the nominations are released, there’s another issue where they predict the winners. Then there’s a big double issue after the awards ceremony itself where they dissect every aspect of the telecast and talk about who was a deserving winner, and who got snubbed. It seems like an awful lot of energy to spend on one night of glitz.

Don’t get me wrong, though, I do love the Oscars. I’ve watched the show every year since I was 13 and there’s nothing I like better than a good Oscar pool. Before we had the kids, we used to make it a point to see all five Best Picture nominees before the ceremony, as well as other films that had received a lot of nominations, so we could actually watch the show with meaningful opinions.

These days I’m lucky if I’ve seen even one of the nominees, because we’re restricted to what’s available on DVD, and most of the big movies are still playing in theatres. I still watch, though, and due to EW’s extensive coverage I usually have plenty of unfounded opinions to share with the viewing public, anyway. It’s surprising to me, though, that even though I know about all these movies and can talk about all these movies, I now have little desire to actually see these movies. In the past few years since Captain Jelly Belly was born, I’ve gotten excited about the Oscars themselves, but found precious few movies that I actually made a point of seeking out once they were released. And on top of that, many of the ones that I have actually noted go into limited DVD release and so are tough to rent, or doesn’t want to see them, or they are too heavy or complex for me to be interested in watching after a long hard day of taking care of the kids and so…they just fade away. I find I eventually catch up with the major blockbusters of the day but the little art films that win Oscars are going unseen.

This year I hope to change all that because there are many really excellent nominees. I can’t remember the last time I was so excited about the year’s best films (or at least, Oscar’s version of “the best”), and I really, really want to see them. I love the Coen brothers, so to hear that No Country For Old Men is a top contender has me buzzing. I’ve heard wonderful things about Juno and can’t wait to see that one. I want to see Michael Clayton and Waitress and The Savages (starring two of my all-time favourite actors, Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman — bonus!). I even want to see the more commercial stuff like Charlie Wilson’s War (love that Aaron Sorkin) and Sweeny Todd and Hairspray (hurray for the return of the musical!). I loved the book Into The Wild and I hear the movie is even better, and despite my iffy feelings for Brad Pitt I am actually interested in The Assassination of Jesse James. And speaking of westerns, which I also adore, there’s 3:10 To Yuma to check out, too.

I kind of hope the writer’s strike goes on for a really, really long time. I have a lot of viewing to catch up on!