Wes Gehring, professor of film studies at Ball State University and writer of the "Reel World" column at USA Today Magazine.

Dennis Bingham, associate professor of English and director of film studies at the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. (Photo by Rob Goebel)

The Academy Awards will be given out Feb. 24 for the 80th time, so we checked in with two Indiana film professors to get their take on the film world's highest honor.

Dennis Bingham is an associate professor of English and director of film studies at the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. He has bachelor's and Ph.D. degrees in English from Ohio State University and a master's in cinema from New York University. He has written numerous articles on topics ranging from Clint Eastwood, Warren Beatty and Stanley Kubrick to gender roles in film.

Wes Gehring is a professor of film at Ball State University and also pens the "Reel World" column for USA Today Magazine. He has a Ph.D. in film from the University of Iowa and is the author of 27 books about film, many about comedy, and biographies of Hoosier performers James Dean, Irene Dunne, Red Skelton and Carole Lombard.

What was the best 2007 movie you saw?

Dennis Bingham: "I'm Not There." I'm finishing a book on the contemporary biopic, and I found what Todd Haynes did in that film really ingenious, splitting Bob Dylan up into six personas...It's one for the ages. It's the one 2007 film I'm sure we'll still be talking about 25 years from now.

Wes Gehring: It's not going to win the Oscar because I think the Oscar is going to go to "There Will Be Blood" or "No Country for Old Men." But I liked "Atonement" the best. That was my favorite film of the year just because, as a writer, I was really moved by a story line that I thought was universal. By the end, when we were with Vanessa Redgrave, I was tearful.

Do the Oscars still matter?

Bingham: Oh, yes. In fact, I think they matter more than they did in previous eras. It's because of the semi-independent (studios) and the major studios' specialty divisions -- like Paramount has Paramount Vantage and Disney has Miramax and Fox has Fox Searchlight and so on.

We have two Hollywoods now. The big-studio Hollywood is interested in making sequels and comic book movies and big blockbusters. And the (independents and) specialty divisions make smaller, more adventurous films and dramas.

If you look at the whole roster of (Best Picture) nominees this year, those were films like "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood," "Juno" -- films that might not have been made if you didn't have the Oscars.

Why do the Academy Awards have such a glamorous image, as opposed to say the Golden Globes or Grammys?

Gehring: One reason is just the history. It goes back to 1927-28. So part of it is it's the granddaddy. It's like the Rose Bowl if you're a football fan. It's the first one and it's the longest-running one. And the other ones haven't gotten the prestige. The Golden Globes are starting to be more important now, but for a long time the perception of the Globes ... is it was a "bought" kind of thing, if you showed up and did the schmoozing. There wasn't any credibility 8attached to it until maybe 10 years ago.

How good a job do the Oscars do of actually honoring the best movies of the year?

Gehring: I think a pretty good job. There are 8always glaring omissions each year, but I think in general the only thing I would change is I wouldn't have a Best Director nominee. I would nominate the best pictures, and whoever the best pictures are, I would go with that. How can a movie be up for best film if the director isn't nominated? But there are always going to be omissions, whether you're ranking the top 25 football teams or best pictures.

Bingham: Not a very good job. It's very political. It's like what we're seeing with the (presidential) primaries. You've got to find consensus. My favorite of the year is "I'm Not There," but I knew it would be too esoteric for the Academy. This is why the films that are best remembered as great films -- the "Citizen Kanes," the "Vertigos," the "Searchers" -- did not get much Oscar attention at the time because they were not agreed upon then as worthwhile films.

What potential nominees do you think were snubbed this year?

Bingham: The most obvious snub was probably "Into the Wild," which a lot of people liked; it was perfectly accessible. I felt when I saw it that the Academy members were not going to cotton to this film about a rather spoiled, snot-nose 22-year-old kid who gets his comeuppance. That turned out to be right. But that is a very good film. Another film that will probably stand the test of time is "Zodiac," which I thought was David Fincher's best film to date.

Both of those films were long, rather discursive narratives, and I think people got a little bit impatient with them. Whereas an Oscar film needs to hit you between the eyes more squarely.

Gehring: I liked the script a lot for "Knocked Up." And "Into the Wild" -- I was surprised that didn't get a nomination for best picture or best director.

Who do you think is the best actor or actress never to win an Academy Award (not including honorary Oscars)?

Gehring: For the actor it would be Cary Grant. I think he is amazing. He's probably my favorite actor. He's one of those people who win Oscars for other people. As far as actress, it would be an actress I dearly love who was nominated many times but never won, a Hoosier named Irene Dunne. She wasn't born in Indiana, but she was raised in Madison. I did a book on her and always liked her stuff. She was nominated five times.

Bingham: I think that the best performance not to win an Oscar was Peter O'Toole for "Lawrence of Arabia." He's a good example of the trap (the Academy) can get into of (rewarding) performances that go for career peaks. And O'Toole was an unknown when he gave that performance. He never bettered it, even though he was nominated seven more times.

Certainly Greta Garbo should have won an Oscar for "Queen Christina." Charlie Chaplin, if you took a poll, would probably win as the actor who overall should've won. Cary Grant is another one who never gave that one 8career peak performance, but you could pick one out from (films) like "Bringing Up Baby" or "North by Northwest."

How about the best director or screenwriter never to win an Oscar?

Bingham: The best director never to win an Oscar has to be (Alfred) Hitchcock. It has to be remembered when Hitchcock was working, he was not considered an artist. If Hitchcock were working now, in a very different climate where we define film art differently, I imagine he would win. They would have gotten around to him at some point.

Besides him, certainly Stanley Kubrick is the other really glaring example of a great, incalculably influential director who never won.

Gehring: I have to go with my favorite film personality of all time, which was Charlie Chaplin. He didn't do that many movies, and he wasn't really nominated that many times. He actually won an honorary Oscar the first year they had them, which most people don't know about. That would be your "Jeopardy!" question. Everyone knows about the end-of-the-career honorary Oscar (in 1972), but he actually got one at the first ceremony for "The Circus."

There are various stories about how the statue got the name Oscar. What's your favorite version?

Bingham: The most colorful one of course is from Bette Davis. She said the backside looked like one of her husbands'. The name is a lot like "Hoosier" -- nobody knows exactly where it came from or what it means.

What did you think of the prospect of actors and film8makers boycotting the Academy Awards before the Writers Guild strike was resolved?

Gehring: I grew up in a family that loves the movies. They weren't always terribly analytical, but movies were always really important with my grandfathers and my father and everybody. So from when I was a little kid, for the Oscars I got to stay up late. There was lots of popcorn and soda. It was an event. I've had Oscar parties in the past and given out cards. To me it's actually comparable to a Super Bowl. So it was like they were taking away one of my holidays.

Bingham: I'm an Oscar junkie. I always have been, going back to when I was 12 or 13 years old. I would have been very sad not to have the whole pomp and circumstance and ceremony. I just think there's so much drama to the envelope being opened and the person running up there, and wondering what they're going to say.

80th Annual Academy Awards

When: 8 p.m. Feb. 24. Where: WRTV Channel 6. Info: www.oscars.com.