Films

i know this has probably been said here before but what's irksome is that of all the films i've seen this year, the best have far and away all been foreign language films (TSITE, A Prophet, The Lives of Others) that pretty much piss from a dizzying height over anything hollywood has mustered. yet come awards time, specifically the fucking oscars, all these films will be lumped into some asinine, patronising 'foreign language' section while derivitive, overblown shite like Avatar hoovers up the rest of the gongs. not that these mastubatory exercises in self congratulation are by any means a measure of quality, they do serve to get otherwise under appreciated/exposed film makers and actors access to a wider audience.

its just that "hollywood" produces so many films the good ones might be harder to spot
between the mega advertising campaigns for the blockbusters.

"the prophet" and "lives of others" have already been preselected for you as foreign
films that stood out and made it to the international market.
if you had to watch the regualar output of german or french cinema you would
probably kill yourself.