What if these Best Picture Nominees (Oscars 2013) Were Back In High School?

The Oscars, like a lot of award shows, remind me of school cliques. Here’s what I mean:

The Sweethearts Who Live Happily Ever After:
Lincoln, Steven Spielberg & Kathleen Kennedy.
Though the producing power couple have a platonic relationship, they’ve been making magic together since E.T.

The Honor Society:
Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, and Megan Ellison.
Both Bigelow and Boal produced the 2008 Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker; they’ve been there done that and are throwing their dukes back in the ring to try and do it again.

And Megan Ellison isn’t doing too bad herself, another film she produced, The Master, is up for three of the nights ‘big awards’ including, Best Actor (Joaquin Phoenix), Best Supporting Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams).

Les Misérables, Tom Hooper, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh.
In 2011, Hooper took home the two big boys—Best Director and Best Picture—for his film The King’s Speech.

Eric Fellner also happens to be the fella behind every guy’s favorite movie: The Big Lebowski.

And Hayward had her hand in everyone’s favorite romantic comedy – even men admit they love it – Love Actually.

As for Cameron Mackintosh, well, he was knighted in 1996, how badass is that?

The Underdogs:
Silver Linings Playbook, Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen, Jonathan Gordon, and director, David O’Russell
Perhaps ‘underdogs’ isn’t quite the right group to peg them under, but perhaps it is?…Let’s examine:

Gigliotti, aside from having a fun name to say, is quaint with an Oscar because of her work with 1999’s big underdog win, Shakespeare in Love. It was a great film but not a shoe-in for the win. Nonetheless it swept up the Academy awards that year.

Then there’s Bruce Cohen who’s film American Beauty (2000)—again, great film—wasn’t necessarily expected to win that year but it proved to be the little film that could.

And Jonathan Gordon, well he’s a repeat Kevin Smith producer, and also behind Good Will Hunting; and although Good Will Hunting didn’t take home Best Picture, it did bring Hollywood two of it’s biggest players to date.

Mr. Congeniality and the Popular Kids:
Argo, Ben Affleck, George Clooney and Grant Heslov.
Affleck and Clooney. That’s it. I need to say nothing else. And as for Heslov, well, Clooney loves the guy, and that’s enough for him to be okay in my book.

The Foreign Exchange Student
Amour, Margaret Ménégoz, Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka, Michael Katz, and director Michael Haneke.
Representing France, Germany, and Austria, this is a film that brings heartbreaking truth and beauty to the Oscars. Leave it to the Europeans to keep things simple yet still cause movement within the soul; they’re fancy folks, real fancy.

The Eclectic Group of Friends You Are Slightly Surprised Hang-Out Together:
Life of Pi, Gil Netter, Ang Lee, and David Womark.
Gil Netter produced such films as The Blind Side, My Best Friend’s Wedding, and Marley & Me.
Ang Lee directed Brokeback Mountain.
David Womark produced Stardust and G.I. Joe, Rise of Cobra.

Where did these guys meet? I wish I was there when they decided to producer Life of Pi. The unique collaborative team created one of the most visually stunning, gorgeous films of the year. And they managed to keep the book’s essence is tact. Kudos for that.

The New Kids:
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Dan Jarvey, Josh Penn, Michael Gottwald, and director Benh Zeitlin.
Who are these guys? What have they done? Where did they come from? Everyone wants to know. And everyone cares. Because the one film (they made) we did see, is just so freakin’ wonderful.

The Too-Cool for School Production Kids Who Are More Accomplished Than You Realize:
Django Unchanged, Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin, Pilar Savone, and director, Quentin Tarantino.
Okay, so Stacey Sher produced a few of my favorite movies including Pulp Fiction, Reality Bites, and Matilda. But the list goes on and on (IMDB her). I’m happy she’s a woman, makes me proud.

Then there’s Reginald Hudlin who has done things that make you say, “get the f&*k outta here, he did that?”, like: he directed Boomerang, and wrote all the House Party films!

And as for Pilar Savone? She is a ride or die chick; she’s worked with Tarantino on Inglorious Basterds, Grind House, and Deathproof.