A lovely perk of the job

I seem to have come down with a deadly virus - somewhere between H1N1 and the common cold - so have been laid up in bed all weekend, with nothing but Frasier DVD boxsets to keep me company. That is, until this morning, when I received an awesome awards screener.

A while back, I decided to become a member of a group called the Online Film Critics Society, because a) they're a legitimate organisation full of talented and like-minded people, and b) I always like to feel slightly more important than I actually am. What I didn't realise was that OFCS members are considered important enough to receive awards screeners through the post, all the way from America. They say 'For Your Consideration' on them and everything. That's b) taken care of, then.

So, every awards season, I receive occasional bundles of DVD goodies, including films which often won't even be released in the UK for months. So far I've received J. Edgar, Martha Marcy May Marlene, the excellent Shame, Contagion, Harry Potter 7b, that film where Glenn Close is even more manly than usual and a whole host of other award-worthy films. But the best was yet to come.


Postie woke me up this morning with this delightful package: Terrence Malick's sumptuous slice of arty-fartage The Tree Of Life on Blu-ray. Strike that off the Christmas list. Even better, it came with a series of delightful 'For Your Consideration' art cards, each containing an element of the film which the studio considered worthy of nomination.


It has to be said, I agree with the freebie: The Tree Of Life thoroughly deserves nods for Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain as support, young Hunter McCracken as Best Actor, Terry M as Best Director as well as, well, pretty much every other category: Film Editing, Sound Editing, Screenplay, Score, Cinematography. It's one of the most visually and aurally arresting films I've ever been privileged to set my eyes and ears on, so I'm fully behind Team Tree when it comes to Oscar success.

Oh, all except one category.


Cheer up, Sean. You never know.