eight decades of dominating the headlines and shunting more pressing, newsworthy stories, do the Awards still matter? Is the gratification a mere fleeting sensation for the winners, who are often quick to lose interest in their gold-plated britannium statue once all the fuss has died down and work can begin once more without interruption. Furthermore, is the ceremony any more than an inflated popularity contest, where favourites of the Academy are often the more likely to emerge victorious, even when there are more worthy competitors? Such questions are always pertinent at this time, and were once again brought to light after some controversial comments made by one of 2013's prospective nominees, Joaquin Phoenix. Having spent a few years in the wilderness after his failed mocumentary I'm Still Here , Phoenix has returned to tinsel town with plenty to prove to the detractors who were brutally vitriolic when assessing his attempts to con audiences, critics, and peers alike by feigning the downfall of his own career. Now, he is back with the perfect riposte, portraying a World War Two veteran struggling to acclimatise to a post-war America in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master . His performance has been a critical success in all the major cultural quarters, and he was awarded with the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival, sharing the spoils with his co-star Phillip Seymour-Hoffman. Following the hysteria, talk about Phoenix being a favourite to scoop the gong at the Oscars was rapidly bubbling to