“No mass cultural event has the capacity to infuriate like the Oscars.” A truer line was never written, and so Grantland writer Mark Lisanti launches a “tournament” to determine the most egregious Oscar travesty of all time, rounding up any number of supposed outrages from past Academy Awards ceremonies that people still love to bitch about, and pitting them against each other for you to vote on. Nominees range from contentious winners to infamous onstage moments, many of which I still don’t understand the fuss about. I, for one, think it’s nice that Angelina Jolie is close to her brother. And I’ll never get why it must be a cast-iron fact that “Saving Private Ryan” is a better film than the perfectly delightful “Shakespeare in Love.” Then again, I still feel less than sanguine about “Crash”: everyone has their Oscar sore points. Perhaps the better question would be: what Oscar “travesties” are you totally okay with? [Grantland]
The Oscar-nominated screenwriters of “Argo,” “Lincoln” and “Zero Dark Thirty” talk about the political facets of their work. [New York Times]
Jerry Rice dips into the water tank for a first-hand look at the visual effects in “Life of Pi” — one of the surest Oscar bets of the season, you’d think. [The Vote]
Meanwhile, Eric Eisenberg talks to the artists behind one of the inevitable also-rans in that category, “The Avengers.” [Cinema Blend]
Anne Thompson reflects on the career of recently passed screenwriter Alan Sharp. [Thompson on Hollywood]
Glenn Whipp talks to the folks at the Laika animation studio, who brought us “Coraline” and “ParaNorman,” about going two-for-two with the Academy. [LA Times]
Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, the people behind Oscar-nominated doc “The Invisible War,” discuss their film’s brave investigation of sexual abuse in the military. [Gold Derby]
Venerable British film critic Barry Norman picks the 49 greatest British films of all time. [The Telegraph]
Far, far from the Oscar race: I’ve never heard “How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days” described as the golden age of anything, but Amanda Dobbins uses Kate Hudson flick to measure how far the romcom has fallen. [Vulture]