18 Must See Movies Before Oscar Night

18 Must See Movies before Oscar Night Two years ago, I decided to up my viewing of the Oscars from pure spectator sport to active predictor and vocal commentator. Not that I have anything worth saying, but I get a lot more out of the event by putting in my two cents. To do this meant I needed to see as many of the nominated movies as possible.

The process I used the last two years was to take Entertainment Weekly's 25 Must See Movies before the Oscars list and work my way through it before Oscar night. I briefly recapped each movie and kept a running ranking of which movies I liked best.

I like to share the list with friends, because I found I learn more about the movies by hearing how others like and rank them differently than me. In short, the process added value to my Oscar viewing experience.

This year, I waited until the nominations came out to focus my efforts a little more. The obvious place to start was with the movies nominated for best picture - this year there are nine. Then I added movies for Best Actress - The Help was the only duplicate in the Best Picture category so that added another 4 movies. Then Best Actor which added 2 movies to the list. Supporting actress added Bridesmaids to the list, and supporting actor added Beginners and Warrior. That brought the total to 18 movies.

Of those, I've only seen 4: Beginners, Bridesmaids, The Descendants, and Midnight in Paris. So I have four weeks to see 14 movies and rank them as I go. Wish me luck!

Now, here's where you come in. I'd love for you to join me on this journey. Share your list of movies to see, tell me how you would rank the movies, react to my rankings and tell me where you think I got it wrong. If you don't see all the movies, no worries, comment on what you have seen. And then on Oscar Night, let's tweet and Facebook to cheer and moan together. I look forward to learning what you think about the best movies of 2011 over the next four weeks.