The lure of 34" screens and the miraculously obtained copies of most nominated films make Thamel the best pre-Oscar destination in Kathmandu-blackouts, smelly toilets and all.

When comedian Steve Martin hosts the 73rd annual Academy Awards this week, will you be rooting for the slashing broadswords of Gladiator or the flashing Green Destiny sword of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Which Steven Soderbergh do you favour for Best Director: the maker of the moody drug-war saga Traffic or the man behind Erin Brockovich, in which Julia Roberts' bosoms fight for justice? Though the Academy has mysteriously failed to invite the much-felicitated Thinley Lundup Dorje to be a presenter, there's still plenty of reason to rise with the roosters (in Nepal that's 6.45am Monday morning, 26 March) to watch them hand out those little golden statues.

And for Kathmandu film fans, the good news is that Thamel's free-movie restaurants are currently running all five of the Best Picture nominees. Chocolat, Gladiator, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are playing in fairly heavy rotation, and Traffic and Erin Brockovich are both available upon request.

As for the top acting categories, cast your eyes over Cast Away, Quills, Contender, Almost Famous, Shadow of the Vampire, and Requiem for a Dream, and you'll have seen 15 of the 20 nominated performances. All of these are now available in Nepal, says Rajendra Manandhar, whose Flex Video in Chhetrapati has been supplying films to Thamel for 10 years.

A few years ago, these places were so packed that many people couldn't even get a reservation, recalls Thakur Aryal, manager of Cinderella, Thamel's longest-running movie restaurant. Now there are at least seven screens within a few blocks of each other playing films at 1pm, 3pm, 6pm, and 8pm daily, and not all Seven Years in Tibet and Into Thin Air either. Better yet, they're not all jammed with chain-smoking trekkers-sometimes you can practically have your own private screening room. Since so many restaurants opened, says Aryal, "no place is that full now."

And that competition means you're not limited by the chalkboard choices anymore. None of the movie restaurants is planning any special pre-Oscar programming, but you and your friends are welcome to take over. Both Boogie Woogie Cafe and Free Movie Restaurant will let you pick the 10 am screening from their selection. Cinderella, Red Kohinoor, Royal Steak House, and Twa Dewa all promise to show your choice of movie if you request it one day ahead, whether you want something from their collection or a video from the shop. You pay only for your food, no extra charge for special movies (video rentals cost them Rs 15-Rs 30). This may be the only way to catch lesser-known treats like Almost Famous or Contender. Even without planning ahead, if there's nothing listed for that day that interests you, you can often find a restaurant with no customers waiting for the advertised offering and persuade the management to let you make a different choice from their library.

Thamel can be a tough place to watch movies (a blackout, a print that couldn't show the final 10 minutes, and a toilet that seemed determined to join us in the dining room are some of my less favourite screening experiences), but for the most part, this year's Best Picture hopefuls can stand the pressure. Romantics can hang on to every word of the newest release, the fairy tale Chocolat (in English, even though the title looks French)-the print I saw at Free Movie had remarkably clear sound and picture. In addition to a roguish Johnny Depp with an Irish accent, it's graced by Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress nominees Judi Dench and Juliette Binoche.

Experts predict Julia Roberts' titillating turn in Erin Brockovich is sure to win Best Actress. Based on a true story, it's about an uneducated single mother who uses her brains and her low-cut blouses in a lawsuit against a powerful corporation. Flex Video's only copy is full of glitches, but Free Movie manager Uttam Shrestha, who votes for Brockovich for Best Picture, says his version is just fine. The martial-arts masterpiece Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon can entertain no matter how noisy the audience thanks to the fantastically choreographed fight scenes. (It's also nominated for Best Foreign Language film, but it's dubbed into English.) Traffic, on the other hand, jumps between several interwoven plots, with maybe a quarter of the scenes in Spanish, and subtitles that wash out against the Mexican dust. You'll need a good print and a close-up seat in a quiet room to keep this excellent but complex movie from becoming an exercise in frustration.

Actually, maybe even Traffic would look good at the fairly new Twa Dewa, which boasts a 34" screen-the largest I found by a good five inches-with Dolby sound to boot. This baby is as close as you'll get to the big-screen experience in Thamel. Red Kohinoor also has a large TV, as well as the only room with a choice of chairs or cushions for seating. Unfortunately, though, its machine can't fast-forward or rewind, so if you've got a ragged print that jumps around, you're at its mercy. Sticking to selections from its library may be safer than renting from the video store here. The smaller screens of the other restaurants are adequate for their room sizes-in most cases, you can follow the picture even from the back row. Another technology to keep in mind: Boogie Woogie, Cinderella, and Free Movie all have generators, so a power cut won't turn your screening into
a cliffhanger.

Boogie Woogie often draws a crowd, which makes it a lively place to watch cult favourites like Road Trip and The Matrix. Best Special Effects goes to its menu, which cleverly glows under blacklight so you can pick your dinner in the dark. All the menus are variations on the standard pizza-burger-curry mix, and none is going to be nominated for Thamel's Best Cooking.