Is it possible that, in the midst of Oscar season clamor, we’ve missed some of the most meaningful films of 2013?

I know… the Academy Awards, Ellen DeGeneres’ star-studded selfie, the John Travolta debacle… it’s all ancient history, right?

So now would be a great time to catch up with what the Oscars missed. And they missed a lot. Good news: Most of those titles are now easily accessible for you to enjoy at home.

All nine of the movies that were nominated for Best Picture at the 2014 Academy Awards are impressive in various ways. But let’s face it: To win the Academy’s approval, it helps to demonstrate the stuff of popularity and prestige. And it helps to play elaborate, attention-seeking games in order to impress the voters.

As a friend of mine recently quipped on Facebook, “Any award that requires the qualified parties to intensely campaign against each other is a meaningless award.”

You can easily access my list of the films that meant the most to me in 2013, and few of them made much of an impression on the Academy.

But that’s just a list. To dig deeper, visit Response , where I’ve written down some impressions of seven films — including Short Term 12, Frances Ha, Upstream Color, and four others — that were overlooked by the Academy. If you haven’t seen these films, I encourage you to check them out.