Never Look Away - 2 nominations

Foreign Language Film - Germany; Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Cinematography - Caleb Deschanel

Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner of this year's Hidden Gem award is Never Look Away.  (The Hidden Gem award is given by me every year to a film that I'd never heard of before the Oscars nomination, but becomes one of my favorite movies of the year.  The first winner of the Hidden Gem award was Lars and the Real Girl.)  Honestly friends, I didn't really want to see this film.  It's 3 hours and 9 minutes, it's about Nazi Germany and the aftermath, and the previews were not compelling.  But it's a nominee and I always see every film.  So, as Yoda would say, "judge me by my size, do you?"  Big mistake.

Never Look Away follows Kurt from his childhood into his adulthood.  As a young boy, he demonstrates a talent for art, and it is nurtured by his beautiful Aunt Elizabeth who is a free thinker but suffers from mental illness.  In alignment with Nazi policy, she is taken from her family and her doctor, Professor Seeband (in charge of the eugenics program in Germany) sends her to the gas chambers with fellow sufferers.

Kurt grows up and begins his life as an art student, where he meets, falls in love with, and marries fellow student Ellie.  Though he has found some success as an artist under the oppressive regime, they escape together to West Germany where he joins a new art school.  He struggles to find his voice as an artist until he begins to uncover certain secrets from his past, and finds that the dots connect to Ellie's family, as well.

It is hard to describe this film for how magnificent it was.  When the film ended, I wasn't ready to let these characters go, I wanted to know more about their lives and their futures, and just enough was left unresolved that made the story compelling.  It was deeply satisfying, and every scene moved the story forward.  Normally with a film this length, I can identify 20 minutes that the filmmakers loved but should have cut.  Not so with Never Look Away.  It was beautiful and heartbreaking and hopeful.  The only thing I'm sad about with Never Look Away is that it is being overshadowed by Roma, a remarkably mediocre film.  This one deserves to be the winner.