”I just want to thank everybody I’ve ever met in my entire life.” (Kim Basinger)

That quote should get you in the mood because, yes, it’s Academy Awards® time again! The irresistible nonsense that is Hollywood’s annual patting-itself-on-the-back season. I say nonsense, because we all know it is (as any declaration of ‘the best’ in such a field has to be) and irresistible because I for one find a great deal of fun in speculating who the winners might be. A few months ago it all seemed very up-in-the-air (geddit?) and unclear who the nominations might be, but, as is usually the case, it all came into sharp relief with a few weeks to go, and the annoncement of the nominees carried not a lot of surprises to industry watchers such as myself. But what’s this? Ten nominations in the Best Film category? Studio pressure to give more titles the Best Film Nomination kudos is the likely cause of that I fancy, and five of the titles haven’t a prayer. In fact, probably nine of them haven’t a prayer, as I can’t imagine they won’t give Best Film to what Mark Kermode incitefully (sic) referred to as ‘Dances with Smurfs’ – James Cameron’s Avatar. Who are the Academy to argue with $2 billion box office? (Remember Titanic came out ahead of LA Confidential; I rest my case.) And the rest? For what it’s worth, here’s what I reckon: acting-wise, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Bridges, Christopher Waltz and Mo’Nique; and Best Director, the first ever woman to win that particular prize, will be Kathryn Bigelow. You’ll see! And Foreign Language? That should go to the best (in my view, these things being subjective) foreign language film of the year, Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet – though quite why Warwick Thornton’s stunning Samson & Delilah (see page 10 for details of our special preview screening) isn’t on the shortlist is anyone’s guess...

March at Filmhouse is another smorgasbord (forgive me, I was recently in Sweden!) of cinematic delights. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s stunning Micmacs continues throughout the month, and France is further represented by two highly accomplished, intelligent and insightful dramas: Mia Hansen-Løve’s moving and affecting The Father of My Children, and Jessica Hausner’s fascinating and complex Lourdes, which follows a group on a trip to the Catholic pilgrimage site. The Kreutzer Sonata played EIFF a couple of years ago and I always wondered why no UK distributor picked it up... well now they have, and it’s a fascinating, atmospheric thriller for grown-ups, based on the novel by Tolstoy (who was, in turn, inspired by Beethoven’s musical work of the same name). The Scouting Book For Boys is an excellent rural drama from young British filmmaker Tom Harper and stars ‘school of Shane Meadows’ alumnus Thomas Turgoose; and Argentina’s leading woman director, Lucrecia Martel (La ciénaga, La niña santa, both screening this month), returns with the beguiling The Headless Woman. Re-release-wise we’ve two dazzling yet completely different classics: Howard Hawks’ glorious (not to mention Glorious Technicolor®) musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Max Ophüls’ heart-rending melodrama Letter From an Unknown Woman.

There’s plenty of opportunity to see those Oscar® winners too with our handy ‘Maybe you missed’ strand... fingers crossed we’re showing the right films! In the meantime, I’m off down the turf accountant’s...