Tom Brook tells what it is like to be wined and dined by studio publicists during Oscars season – and why it is bad for moviegoers.

Recently I was invited to lunch with Prisoners stars Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. I also had breakfast with Gravity director Alfonso Cuarón – having shared drinks and finger food the night before with 12 Years a Slave actor Chiwetel Ejiofor and his director Steve McQueen. Sounds like some fantasy – but it did happen, for reasons that have to do with my marginal role in the Oscars race more than anything else.

I happen to be a voting member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, an organization that holds the Critics’ Choice Awards, a televised ceremony, in January. The trophies handed out that night get widely reported and raise the profile – and consequently the prospects – of individuals and films seeking Oscar glory. Hence all the wining and dining on the part of the studios to win our votes.

But the pursuit of winning Oscars has now become so intense, at times frantic, that it has reduced all the participants who are part of this annual frenzy – from journalists like me to big name stars – to pawns in a rather strange game.

I don’t really know the British actor who excels with his performance in 12 Years a Slave, although I have interviewed him a couple of times. So I joined a small posse of celebrity-hungry journalists surrounding Ejiofor to await my turn. Typical cocktail party chitchat was going on – nothing deep. Soon he was being used as a prop, being asked to pose for a photograph with a columnist from a local New York paper. I asked him what he made of the event. He told me he enjoyed it, that he liked meeting different people and discussing his role. I found that hard to believe – but he was the perfect gentleman.