Oscars To Feature 10 Best Picture Nominees

[Harvey]

Honestly, nobody is forcing you to watch. I usually don't. And since the show is on network television, I hope you're not paying to watch it!

As to the "art elite" awarding themselves, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is composed of...you guessed it... motion picture professionals (about 6,000 of them). The "People's Choice Awards" already exist, if you'd rather watch a show with that format. But that wouldn't be the Oscars.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

What's with all the cries about populism? The Academy Awards were never intended to award commercial success, they're intended to award creative and technical achievement. Sometimes an unworthy nominations is railroaded in by likes of Harvey Weinstein or others (last year's The Reader). Sometimes the Academy's conservatism shines through and politically controversial films are snubbed (like Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing). And sometimes the Academy buckles to other external pressures, like William Randolph Hearst over Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.

It's too bad you don't have any interest in most or all of the films that are nominated, but the moment the Academy starts to award films based on popular appeal it becomes the People's Choice Awards, and irrelevant. Perhaps, on other grounds, the Academy already is irrelevant.

Speaking of the best animated feature Oscar, in the context of creative and technical achievement, I think it is now defunct. Most of the films that are nominated, outside of the occasional gem from Pixar, are garbage (Kung Fu Panda anyone?). Better to let those animated films that actually are good compete with the live action features.

This is true. In almost every year since the beginning of the category there has been really only one film actually deserving of the award. The rest have been filler nominees in order to justify the category.

 

[Smiley]

Really, between the director, writing, acting, and actress nominees, we've had a good idea every year what the Top 10 choices were and which five were the frontrunners. This will change NOTHING.

 

[suarezguy]

It doesn't make sense for the second highest grossin' movie EVER! to not get a nomination for Best Picture!

And yet a lot of people disliked Titanic winning, and a lot of popular-but-bad movies gross the most of the year (PotC2, Spider-Man 3 and Shrek the Third).
I don't know how many SF/F films are really great, let alone each year.

Speaking of the best animated feature Oscar, in the context of creative and technical achievement, I think it is now defunct. Most of the films that are nominated, outside of the occasional gem from Pixar, are garbage (Kung Fu Panda anyone?). Better to let those animated films that actually are good compete with the live action features.

A good example of how trying for more inclusion and opportunity can dilute the significance.

 

[Barbados Slim]

What's with all the cries about populism? The Academy Awards were never intended to award commercial success, they're intended to award creative and technical achievement. Sometimes an unworthy nominations is railroaded in by likes of Harvey Weinstein or others (last year's The Reader). Sometimes the Academy's conservatism shines through and politically controversial films are snubbed (like Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing). And sometimes the Academy buckles to other external pressures, like William Randolph Hearst over Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.

It's too bad you don't have any interest in most or all of the films that are nominated, but the moment the Academy starts to award films based on popular appeal it becomes the People's Choice Awards, and irrelevant. Perhaps, on other grounds, the Academy already is irrelevant.

Speaking of the best animated feature Oscar, in the context of creative and technical achievement, I think it is now defunct. Most of the films that are nominated, outside of the occasional gem from Pixar, are garbage (Kung Fu Panda anyone?). Better to let those animated films that actually are good compete with the live action features.

Great post. I think the best way to enjoy the Oscars is to see all the films once they get nominated. There's a good month or so between the nominations and the ceremony. Then you won't have the complaint of feeling like it's all irrelevent. But if you are the type of person that only wants to watch blockbusters or slapsticky movies, then the Oscars aren't for you because it's rare that a Dark Knight or Return of the King comes along that's a huge hit and a truly great film. And that's okay. It's like me and the Grammys. I don't care for most radioplay pop music, so when the Grammys come around, I just simply don't pay attention.

I totally agree that shows like the Peoples Choice, Teens Choice and MTV Movie Awards are for people that want populism to be awarded over artistic merit. I personally love cinema more than to see a film like Twilight sweep an awards show.

They haven't said anything about getting rid of the animated category but it does need to go. Since it's first year, with Spirited Away winning, I can't remember a time when it's been a real competition. Maybe this year will be Up vs. Ponyo vs. 9 and we'll have a real animated competition.

The cries of populism come because the art elite expects the populace to pay to watch them award themselves.

Who pays to watch the Oscars? It's usually on network TV and you can always watch something else.

 

[od0_ital]

It doesn't make sense for the second highest grossin' movie EVER! to not get a nomination for Best Picture!

And yet a lot of people disliked Titanic winning, and a lot of popular-but-bad movies gross the most of the year (PotC2, Spider-Man 3 and Shrek the Third).

The only people I remember bitchin' about Titanic was fallout from Cameron's "I'm KING of the WORLD!" first & then callin' for a moment of silence second.

And maybe ya missed my point - I'm not sayin' The Dark Knight should have gotten a nomination because it was the highest grossin' movie of the 2008, I'm sayin' it should have been nominated because it was one of the best movies of the year that also happens to be the second highest grossin' film of all freakin' time, second only to Titanic.

The Pirates sequels were bad, the first was the best. Spider-Man 3 sucked, except for the Sandman. And I haven't seen Shrek 3, but wouldn't that fall under "best animated film" anyway?

I don't know how many SF/F films are really great, let alone each year.

The first LotR was better than the third, but it was the third that got the Oscar.

Scifi films are gettin' better, and they should get recognition for that.

But I'm still not callin' for one of ten slots to go to a SF/F film, but they don't all have to be arthouse bullcrap that only got released in New York and Los Angeles.

And really, TDK should have been nominated. Even Hugh Jackman said so!

 

[Newski]

I can't help but feel that this is clearly due to backlash from the snubs for The Dark Knight and Wall-E last year. Both of those were finer films than any of the best picture nominees.

Only because the nominees last year weren't that great to begin with....


Five, Ten, Twenty, it doesn't matter.... Films are going to be snubbed. It's an awards show. People vote. Dark Knight doesn't make it, it says nothing about the film other than "Not everyone thought it was the best movie of the year." And I hated the Dark Knight.

The cries of populism come because the art elite expects the populace to pay to watch them award themselves.

Hey, bro, back it up.... Titanic? Silence of the Lambs? We aren't talking about the "Art Elite". Occassionally, we are talking "Pseudo Intellectuals" (American Beauty), but most of the best picture nominees and winners are mainstream, popular films anyway. They are still mainstream Hollywood films, from the same people who make summer blockbusters and trendy films anyway.

Sure, "Benjamin Button" may seem like an "Art film" but that's just because it's excessively boring, LIKE an Art film.

 

[Hunter X]

It doesn't make sense for the second highest grossin' movie EVER! to not get a nomination for Best Picture!

Even when it was The Phantom Menace?

 

[Vanyel]

It doesn't make sense for the second highest grossin' movie EVER! to not get a nomination for Best Picture!

Just because a movie makes a lot of money doesn't mean it's deserving of a Best Picture nomination. Box office champs have won best picture, Titanic and Gone With The Wind and are just two that come to mind. And Gone With The Wind does hold the title for highest grossing film (when adjusted for inflation and you do need to adjust because a film that cost $0.50 to get into will never beat a film that costs $8.00 to get into).

So a movie that is good and wins the box office can win Best Picture.

Frost/Nixon and Milk were better pictures than TDK. IMO, they were also better than the winner, Slumdog Millionaire.

The 81st Academy Award nominees for best picture should have been:
Frost/Nixon
Milk
WALL-E
Doubt

I couldn't think of a 5th, but the Oscars have had times when there were less than 5 nominees for an Award.

As much as I loved TDK, it didn't have the emotional bite, the sense of history, the pleasure of watching or the multiple strong performances of the others.

Beauty and the Beast is, so far, the only animated picture to be nominated for Best Picture. So animated films can compete with live action films. WALL-E could have competed with the other BP nominees. Up can compete and beat any film released so far this year.

 

[Barbados Slim]

Beauty and the Beast was before they had an animated category, which first came in 2002 with Spirited Away winning the first animated Oscar. Once a film is considered for that category it is ineligible for Best Picture. The same holds true for Best Foreign Language Film. That caused upsets in the past with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, City of God and The Lives of Others.

 

[od0_ital]

It doesn't make sense for the second highest grossin' movie EVER! to not get a nomination for Best Picture!

Even when it was The Phantom Menace?

Episode I was not a good movie, though.

TDK was a good movie and it made a shit ton of money.

Seems to me (and obviously I'm not the only one) that it should have gotten the nomination.