It looks to me like the discussion is about the actual nominees but people's stated preferences are based on their own frame of reference.OscarGuy wrote:I would think that a discussion in a poll about the Best Supporting Actress nominees of 2013, one would want to limit to those that were eligible.
Determining what films are eligible for a given Oscar year is a daunting task no one has ever mastered. It's easier now that the Academy publishes lists of eligible films but going back into Oscar history it's impossible to get an accurate picture. The Academy didn't even follow its own rules in the early days when members submitted films that they may have seen within the eligibility period but which were actually released earlier. Even when the Academy went to calendar year eligibility with the 1934 awards, they didn't go strictly by the calendar. At least from 1937 through 1941 the cut-off date for eligibility was January 12th of the following year. That's why In Old Chicago, a film not released anywhere until January, 1938 was a 1937 nominee. It's how Daryl Zanuck secured a Best Picture Oscar for How Green Was My Valley which he held back from being shown in L.A. until January 12, 1942 because he strongly believed that the only reason The Grapes of Wrath lost to Rebecca the year before was because although both films opened early in the year (Grapes in February in L.A.; Rebecca in March), Selznick re-released Rebecca at year end to keep it fresh in voter's minds while Zanuck failed to do the same for Grapes. He was determined that Valley wouldn't lose to early favorite Sergeant York and his strategy paid off.
That's why I've now gone back and reassessed my own awards based on much easier to determine New York release dates which now pretty much coincide with L.A. release dates but well into the 1970s varied quite drastically with L.A. release dates on numerous films. I use the New York Times which has complete copies of their newspapers on-line in the Times Machine for a 129 year period ending around 1982. You can check out the movie ads to find out when a film actually opened in New York. It's not always the date IMDb. lists. They generally go by the date the film was reviewed by the Times, which well into the 1970s and perhaps the 1980s was the day after their critic had seen the film with an audience in the theatre in which it was playing. Thus you have several films that IMDb. shows as opening on January 2nd of a certain year when it actually opened on December 31t of the previous year.
The Times also has reviews of most major films posted in the archives on their website. All you have to do is go to the movie section and type in the name of a film you want check out in the showtimes search box and it will bring up the original review of films not currently playing.