Here's the link to The New York Times annual Holiday Movies preview featuring the makings of a New York Oscar campaign, Emma Thompson, Will Smith, a brand new flock of penguins and more. And, all I can say, is: I'm issuing a personal invitation to David Carr to get out more -- like, way out, like leave New York City and visit Los Angeles. Because the media columnist writes that, when it comes to Oscar PR: "Films may be produced and made in Hollywood, but come October and November the center of gravity shifts, and they are remade in the crucible of New York. With just 600 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in New York, compared with about 4,000 in Los Angeles, the city might seem to play big for its size, but it is home to the culture-and-celebrity media, where momentum or certain death can be bestowed with a few keystrokes... If they can make it here, well, is a dance with Oscar at the end of February far behind? " And then, lower down in his article (NYT photo illustration above), Carr reverses himself: "The Oscar-night victory of the L.A.-centric Crash of course provides a vivid counter-example to New York’s taste-making primacy." Which leads me to ask: Are NYC media too big for their britches, or are they just Hollywood's bitches? 
The fact is that the only people who really matter around Oscar time are those flawed, aged and unpredictable Academy voters, the vast majority of whom are claimed by L.A. Just compare the critics' awards lists and the media's Top 10 lists with the actual Oscar winners: parallel universes. Also, look at the vast quantity of articles ordered up by NYC-based media editors between Labor Day and New Year's about movies that supposedly are going to be awards-worthy -- but then never receive the time of day from Golden Boy. In other words, you guys back East aren't more important to Oscar PR: just more easily spun.
