Monday is Oscar day and there's been a real shock this year – the Academy has actually nominated good films!

We all hunker down for the Oscars here at the Watusi Country Club. Any excuse, after all, for a party. It may be too hot to don those tuxes but we'll be breaking out the pina coladas and popcorn and rockin' our t-shirts along with the red carpet.

It does make easier that – after last year's debacle – the nine films chosen as Best Picture nominees are all really worth seeing. I would go as far as saying that few of last year's films, winning pic The Artist possibly excepted, would stand up besides even the worst of this year's nominees.

The other thing that separates this year's Oscars is that I've actually, for a change, seen all the films nominated. Normally I'm happy to wing it having seen about half of them. That's because I'm not going to waste my life going to the cinema to watch films I'm almost absolutely sure I'll hate. It also gets expensive and I don't get comps for this stuff.

As it was I caught many of last year's nominees later on DVD and was astonished that anyone bothered to nominate them. Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close? The Help? Moneyball? Warhorse? Seriously? Best Films? I don't think so. These are flicks that barely anyone remembers a year later. Even the good ones from last year – Midnight in Paris, The Descendants – seem like modest (if enjoyable) outings.

This year it's different. There are nine films nominated and I could certainly make a case for at least seven of them winning.

Let's concentrate on those Best Picture nominees since the actors and actresses seem to pretty much have it sown up. Daniel Day Lewis will win Best Actor for his astounding turn as Lincoln; Jennifer Lawrence will win for Silver Linings Playbook (unless the Academy have a burst of senior citizen love and give it to 92-year-old Emmanuelle Riva); Anne Hathaway will win Best Supporting Actress for singing that song in Les Mis; and Christoph Waltz, despite winning Best Supporting Actor at every other ceremony will probably miss out to Tommy Lee Jones' barnstorming in Lincoln.

But Best Film? Lincoln is admirable, smart and engrossing, but it's a little solemn and does slip occasionally towards Steven Spielberg's regular sentimentality. Big subject though, worthy nominee. Django Unchained is violent and compulsively over the top, Tarantino at his most Tarantino-esque. It's also – bravely and surprisingly – the first recent Hollywood film I can think of that tackles the era of slavery in America (Lincoln really doesn't since there are very few black people in it).

The Life of Pi is a thing of wonder: it would be a worthy winner, astounding to look at and deeply human. Beasts of the Southern Wild has similar strengths but, while opening new worlds, is possibly a little lightweight in this company. Les Mis is also astounding to look at and certainly wipes the floor with musical offerings such as Chicago. I guess it depends how much you like the tunes...

Zero Dark Thirty and Silver Linings Playbook both tackle important subjects – the war on terror and mental illness – and do so expertly. Both are remarkable films and well worth your time, the former almost a police procedural (think David Fincher's Zodiac for a similar approach), the latter staying the right side of cuteness and refusing to pander to its clearly damaged protagonists.

Then there are Argo and Amour. Amour won't win. It's an unflinching study of two very elderly people dealing with Alzheimer's, directed with Austrian Michael Haneke's usual rigour. It's deeply moving and not fun at all. Argo is the opposite, a blatant crowd-pleaser, hugely enjoyable and fantastically directed (making Ben Affleck's Best Director snub even more blatant). The way it juggles tension and comedy without either unbalancing the other is remarkable. It's the lightest, but also the most purely entertaining of the films.

So I think Argo will probably win. Which is fine with me – at least all the nominees merit their inclusion. Hunker down in front of your tellies at 11.30am on Monday, or tape it and party into the night. The Oscars may be crap but, just occasionally, they get something right.