While this column is usually dedicated to lists of films, in lieu of this very exciting event honoring George Lucas (and giving much needed support to the best cinematic venue in Chicago, the Gene Siskel Film Center, we’ve decided instead to list 5 reasons why you should part with a little recession era cash in exchange for an opportunity to shake hands with the man who is responsible for the action figures you loved as a kid (looks like I’ve started already):
- Star Wars rocks. Come on, it’s true. The quality of the sequels may vary, but this is a film which has had a pervasive influence on popular culture.
- Jon Favereau. Proving himself to be a formidable director in his own right, there could be no better choice for someone to share the stage with man who tends to take himself rather seriously than someone who truly loves cinema but is not afraid to be irreverent.
- Kagemusha. Lucas and his pal Francis Ford Coppola deserve a lot of credit for raising the western profile of one of Japan’s greatest directors, Akira Kurosawa, by advocating the international release of one of the best films in the latter portion of Kurosawa’s career (which went on to garner two Oscar nominations).
- THX 1138. Lucas’s first feature is risky and innovative and dark and, fitting with the award he is receiving at this event, visionary. While Star Wars may be his legacy, this as a debut feature may be his greater directorial achievement.
- You like movies. You like how they look and how they sound. George Lucas is responsible, at least in part, is so much of what we have come to expect in the contemporary moviegoing experience, from sound (THX) to special effects (ILM, Industrial Light and Magic).
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
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