Coming Up in 2011

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas if you celebrate it, a nice weekend if you don’t. The new year will be upon us soon, and I wanted to let you know some of the things you can expect at Last Cinema Standing in 2011.

As always, Oscar coverage will dominate the first two months of the year. The Academy Awards take place on Feb. 27, and until then, I’ll do my best to provide insights and commentary on the ramp up to the ceremony.

In the first couple weeks of the year, I’ll be doing the year-end wrap up, including my lists of the top ten films of the year, top performances, as well as some other reflections. Nathaniel Ochoa and I will announce our respective top ten lists on our podcast, No Middle Seat. I will follow that with written analyses of the films in question.

Looking forward, I hope to introduce a new weekly or biweekly column to the site. I’ve had a few ideas that I’d like to share here. If you have any other ideas, feel free to mention them in the comments section.

The Great Scenes -- originally, I intended to do a list of the 100 greatest movie scenes, but it seemed like an exercise in futility to narrow down a century of cinema to 100 choice scenes. So, I will highlight one deserving scene a week from films as disparate as possible, the idea being to expose all of us to as great a range of film as possible.

Those Unsung -- as an avid awards watcher every year, I see countless great films, great performances, and great technical achievements go unheralded and unnoticed. I will seek as often as possible to remedy this situation, while also trying to look outside the box when I can.

Modern Classics -- using the last 25 years as a working definition of “modern,” I want to examine the films that have defined and shaped the cinematic landscape in the time that I have been alive, the films that today’s films aspire to be.

Those are just a few ideas for the coming year. When Jan. 1 rolls around, things in the film world will start to move fast and furious, and I will do my best to keep up, while still providing thoughtful, well reasoned arguments and discussion about modern cinema.

Thanks for being here and spending a few minutes of your day with me. I’ll see you in 2011.