Left to my own devices

The Oscars are one week away, so what better time for the 21st annual  Matt Awards ? I've always loved movies, and have always disagreed -- to a greater or lesser extent -- with the choices of the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards. Therefore,  The Matt Awards  are here to showcase what I consider to be the best in cinema every year. 2017 was perhaps one of the best years for movies in quite some time. With so many solid films to choose from, we were really spoilt for choice. I highly recommend the following selections, everything on the Top 10 list (though, admittedly, they may not be everyone's cup of tea), and especially the Best Picture winner. So, without further adieu....

Here is Oscar nominee Timothee Chalamet, nominated for his awesome performance in 2017's Call Me By Your Name . Here's wishing him luck at next week's Academy Awards.

Nearly all of us have had a celebrity crush (or two) in our day. For some it was James Dean, for others it was Farrah Fawcett. For yours truly it was Leonardo DiCaprio. Living alone during the early-to-mid-nineties, I would pine over the (many) photo shoots Leo had done as an up & coming young actor. So, yeah, I thought he was cute. Then again, a lot of actors are cute. Leo has always had something more. Indeed, pre- Titanic DiCaprio has always been my favorite version of Leo. Before that supremely popular ship set sail (see what I did there?), Leo's resume was full of quirky, quality films. The likes of What's Eating Gilbert Grape, This Boy's Life, Basketball Diaries, The Quick and the Dead, Romeo + Juliet and Total Eclipse are enough for any actor to be proud of. His post- Titanic career is almost icing on the cake.

It's that time again. Awards for the motion picture industry are flying fast and furious, and the Oscars are just a couple weeks away. In 1998, I began what has become an annual tradition known as The Matt Awards , to showcase what I consider to be the best in film for a particular year. The first awards honored the movies released in 1997. There was a particular reason I started the awards that year.... More on that later. Now, here are the best in film for 2015, as selected by yours truly:

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning, for the movies that were released in 2015. I therefore thought it would be a good occasion to update my Top 10 Films of the Year list. There are still a few movies I'd like to see from 2015, but this list feels pretty solid for the time being. 1. Spotlight 2. It Follows 3. Brooklyn 4. Star Wars: The Force Awakens 5. Mad Max: Fury Road 6. Magic Mike XXL 7. Grandma 8. The Martian 9. Bridge of Spies 10. Room I hope to see The Revenant this weekend. I've long been a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio.

The Academy Awards are a little over a week away, so I thought it would be a good time for the annual Matt Awards . Begun in 1998 (for movies from 1997), the Matt Awards are my personal picks for the best in film each year. So, when I say "best movie",  I really mean my  favorite movie of the year. As many of you know, movies mean a lot to me. Quite often, I disagree with what is nominated (and wins) for the Oscars, so this is my little way of seeing things done right (because of course Matt's way is the right way). So, without further adieu, here are the Matt Awards for Best-in-Film for 2014 ….

Every year, the late, great film critic Roger Ebert used to hold a contest called Outgess Ebert . In it, he would guess who would win the various categories of the year's Academy Award nominees, and would challenge his readership to submit their predictions, to see if they could "outguess" him. While I don't have the desire to hold a contest, nor am I the movie guru that Ebert was, I thought it would be fun to put my picks out there, and see how it goes. The 86th Annual Academy Awards air tonight on ABC, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. Following are my predictions on who will win what and, in a few cases, why. Here goes!