Get ready for Oscar nominations with Wings

Tomorrow, the Academy will announce its nominations for the 85th Academy Awards. We can probably expect the likely nominees (Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, etc.), but given the widespread critical acclaim for these films, it will probably be a contentious and exciting contest.

Last year, many were taken aback by the success of The Artist, the first silent film to win the Academy's highest honor since the 1920s. Here's the thing: very few people have seen that movie. Wings, the first winner of the Outstanding Picture award (as it was known at the time), was only ever released on VHS. The original negatives are long lost, preventing a proper redux for decades.

That finally changed in 2012 when Paramount released a retouched version of Wings on DVD and Blu-ray. I can't imagine how time and work went into the restoration process, but the fruits of their labor are finally available for public consumption.

Brush up on your Academy Award history by checking out Wings from Media Services (HU DVD 10854).