The film that goes into the Oscar race with the most nominations is generally considered the favorite. With its twelve nominations, producers Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy had every reason to expect that their film, Lincoln, would put them in the winners’ circle, just as they did The Color Purple twenty-seven years earlier.

The Color Purple had been nominated for eleven Oscars at the 1985 awards as had Out of Africa, but the Academy not only gave Out of Africa the Best Picture prize, they gave it an additional six Oscars to The Color Purple’s none, tying it with 1977’s The Turning Point, which had also been nominated for eleven awards, as the most nominated loser of all time. At least this time, their film wouldn’t be going home empty-handed. Lincoln won two Oscars for Daniel Day-Lewis’s beautifully modulated title performance and for Best Production Design. Spielberg at least has three prior Oscars and the Thalberg Award, as well as a slew of other trophies, to console him. Kennedy has won numerous other awards, but she’s never won an Oscar despite eight nominations.

Was Argo a better film than Lincoln? That’s a subjective question that people must answer for themselves. Argo is certainly an enjoyable film about an incident in recent history – the 1980 joint CIA/Canadian secret operation to smuggle six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of Iran. The difference is that this little known incident allowed the film’s writer, director and producers to embellish history somewhat and still claim it was “all true” while Lincoln was held to a higher standard given that the film covered the last four months in the life of one of history’s best known figures, the 16th President of the United States.

Lincoln focuses on the ending of the Civil War as well as the domestic strife of the President interacting with his wife, Mary, and their children, but its central theme is the passage of the 13th amendment, the abolition of slavery.

All of this is not knew to many in the film’s audience who have read numerous books on the subject as well as having seen other films about Honest Abe, notably Gore Vidal’s Lincoln, which covered his entire presidency and won a few awards of its own when it was televised as a mini-series in 1988 with Sam Waterston and Mary Tyler Moore.

Taken in part from a book by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Tony Kushner’s literate, meticulously researched script is a brilliant piece of work that allows numerous actors to establish marvelous parts with just a few brushstrokes. It was the odds-on early favorite to win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, but then controversy raised its ugly head when a current U.S. representative from Connecticut took offense at the scene in which two of his state’s senators voted against the amendment which he found not only historically inaccurate, but downright offensive. Despite Kushner’s assertions that he knew the depiction to be false, that the scene was constructed at Spielberg’s suggestion to heighten the suspense of the film’s climax, the revelation gave the film a black eye, allowing Kushenr to lose to Chris Terrio for his exciting, but much made up, screenplay for Argo. Voters either didn’t know how fictionalized that film was, or didn’t care.

The moral outrage over that scene may also have a played a part in Spielberg losing the Best Director award to Ang Lee for his special effects driven Life of Pi in the absence of an Oscar nomination for Argo’s Ben Affleck for Best Director.

It was a strange Oscar year. Daniel Day-Lewis was the only major player in the behind-the-scenes shenanigans connected with the film to stay above the fray, winning an unprecedented third lead actor Oscar. Sally Field, who was also chasing a third Oscar for her heartbreaking portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln and Tommy Lee Jones, who was chasing a second for perhaps his best screen performance ever as fiery abolitionist advocate Thaddeus Stevens, had to be content with their respective third and fourth nominations.

Lincoln is available in both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

In a performance at least equal to Day-Lewis’s in intensity, eighty-two year-old acting legend Jean-Louis Trintignant had his first leading role in a film in fourteen years in Michael Haneke’s Amour, a rare double Oscar nominee for Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film, which won in the latter category. He and fellow acting legend, eighty-six year old Emmanuelle Riva, play an elderly couple facing the impending death of the latter. Riva was nominated for Best Actress for her almost unbearable portrayal of a once vibrant woman losing her grip on life, first physically, then mentally, as her deterioration escalates. Trintignant is no less heartbreaking as the husband who is at first strong, then confused, then almost helpless watching his wife slip away. His failure to be nominated along with Riva is a blight not only on the Academy, but on the numerous awards organizations that also ignored him.

Amour is available now in Region B on both Blu-ray and standard DVD. Its U.S. release date has yet to be announced.

Although nothing was going to win the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar over Amour, the film that probably came closest was Denmark’s A Royal Affair.

Based on a true story, A Royal Affair is about the late 18th Century Danish reforms instituted by Denmark’s insane King Christian VII under the influence of his German doctor, Johann Stuensee who was having an affair with the British born Queen, who shared his liberal ideals.

Featuring lush cinematography, eye-popping production design and gorgeous costumes, A Royal Affair is one of the best films in some years dealing with court intrigue. Mikkel Boe Folsgaard as the king; Alicia Vikander as the queen and Mads Mkkelsen as the doctor have each been cited by various international awards organizations for their unforgettable performances.

A Royal Affair is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Generally regarded as Charles Chaplin’s best late career film, 1947’s Monsieur Verdoux was the first film in which he doesn’t play the Little Tramp. Instead he deftly portrays a Bluebeard, a bigamist who kills his various wives when they are no longer of use to him, i.e. after he steals all their money. The one exception is Martha Raye who manages to survive despite numerous attempts on her life.

Monsieur Verdoux is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

The first widely distributed U.S. independent film, 1953’s Little Fugitive has been given a Blu-ray upgrade by Kino.

The film was shot in documentary style by Morris Engel, edited by his wife Ruth Orkin and produced by Engel and Ashley. All three were given co-direction and story credit, with Ashley writing the screenplay. The trio earned an Oscar nomination for Best Motion Picture Story, losing to Roman Holiday.

The simple yet charming story is about two days in the life of a seven year-old boy who runs away to Coney Island thinking he has accidentally killed his older brother. There he has numerous adventures until the older brother puts two and two together and finds him before his mother returns from a short trip.

No less an authority than Francois Truffaut, whose own 400 Blows was a trailblazer within the French New Wave declared that without Little Fugitive there would have been no New Wave.

Little Fugitive is also available in an older standard DVD version.

New releases this week include the cable TV film, Hemingway and Gelhorn and the Blu-ray debut of Hello, Dolly!.