Although inveterate moviegoers often deride the Oscars for missing the mark on either the nominations or ultimate selections, the nominations and the show itself still have the capacity to bring important works to audiences who wouldn't otherwise be aware of their existence.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in the Best Actor category, where Demian Bichir was nominated for his performance in A Better Life, a little-seen film that I included in my top-ten list from 2011. That nomination will no doubt bring more people to rent A Better Life, an engrossing drama about the plight of an undocumented gardener in East L.A. who struggles to keep his son away from gangs and immigration agents while trying to give him the opportunities he never had.

It's a reminder that the Hollywood system, which reeks of crass mediocrity overall, is still capable of producing socially relevant stories that can have an effect on the popular and political culture.

Actually, I'm not sure how Hollywood A Better Life is, since Bichir is also up for Best Actor in the hip corollary to the Oscars, the Independent Spirit Awards, which air Saturday night at 10 p.m. on the Independent Film Channel.

In previous years there's always been some sort of rivalry for Best Picture, which theoretically those of us who care about the movies should care about. But is there really that much passion if The Artist overtakes The Descendants this time around?

I have to come clean: though I've seen virtually every nominated film, I've eschewed The Artist, which just concluded a run at the Tampa Theatre. But even its supporters seem to just give it passing love: Andrew O'Hehir in Salon.com, wrote of it, "It’s not a great film and may not even be an especially good one, but it’s going to win the prize because it resounds with good cheer and confidence and willingness to entertain. Those are precisely the qualities usually associated with American cinema."

Or how about the great Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, who labeled it "a pleasant if trivial distraction."

This article appears in Feb 23-29, 2012.