The Oscars have changed the way they nominate movies, now they have to change who votes. This is a discussion we have all seen before but it must be talked about again as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II ends its theater run. There are exceptions to everything that I am going to write about, so don't bug me about all of those.
This year the Oscars are changing the way nominations are given out. A couple of years ago they increased the Oscar nominations from 5 to 10, the intention being to give the "popular" action and comedy movies a chance to be nominated to the big award. GREAT IDEA. The problem is however it turns out that was just a token vote and they never really had a chance to win. Now a film needs a certain number of first place votes to even be nominated, so any number of films between 5 and 10 can be nominated. The brilliant idea here being that if a film is nominated it really has a chance to win. This just goes back to the original problem that some great movies will no longer have a chance.
I am only going to use recent examples as they are easier to remember. In 2008 Slumdog Millionaire went away with the big prize, fine, good movie but I haven't heard anyone talk about this movie in the past 3 years. I want to look at 2 movies that not only didn't win but did not even get nominated; "Iron Man" and " The Dark Knight". Both these movies are still being called modern classics that managed to combine gigantic box office and flawless reviews. Do you know how much effort it takes to make an action movie get flawless reviews, a hell of a lot harder then a movie about underprivileged kids with serious issues (that's my plot summary of Slumdog).
On to 2009 and the year the "The Hurt Locker" made everyone really happy by winning even though about 10% of people watching the Oscars saw this movie. Once again, this movie is very, very good and should be seen but COME ON PEOPLE, Avatar should have walked away with this one. I know it was responsible for the awful 3D craze but it was nothing short of spectacular. At the Golden Globes "The Hangover" won best picture (comedy) which was great to see and it deserved it but no nominations or any love at the Oscars.
Now this past year, I really had faith in my Oscar people that The Social Network would win this one or at the very least Inception would have been in serious contention for the award. But instead we had to watch "The Kings Speech" accept the award. Take me at my word when I say nobody will be talking about that movie in a few years, hell, have you heard anyone talk about it recently?
My point is simple, change who is allowed to vote for the big award. I'm not so bothered about all the other awards, yes I have my serious issues with the acting awards but I will rant about that some other time. Maybe the way to go is let the industry narrow the movies down to 5 and let some kind of public opinion vote between the final five. This would keep out movies like Twilight but give some of the blockbusters a shot at actually winning Best Picture.
I don't see this happening any time soon but I will say that if they don't change this soon the public will lose interest in the Oscars, I personally prefer the Golden Globes these days and that makes me sad.
This year the Oscars are changing the way nominations are given out. A couple of years ago they increased the Oscar nominations from 5 to 10, the intention being to give the "popular" action and comedy movies a chance to be nominated to the big award. GREAT IDEA. The problem is however it turns out that was just a token vote and they never really had a chance to win. Now a film needs a certain number of first place votes to even be nominated, so any number of films between 5 and 10 can be nominated. The brilliant idea here being that if a film is nominated it really has a chance to win. This just goes back to the original problem that some great movies will no longer have a chance.
I am only going to use recent examples as they are easier to remember. In 2008 Slumdog Millionaire went away with the big prize, fine, good movie but I haven't heard anyone talk about this movie in the past 3 years. I want to look at 2 movies that not only didn't win but did not even get nominated; "Iron Man" and " The Dark Knight". Both these movies are still being called modern classics that managed to combine gigantic box office and flawless reviews. Do you know how much effort it takes to make an action movie get flawless reviews, a hell of a lot harder then a movie about underprivileged kids with serious issues (that's my plot summary of Slumdog).
On to 2009 and the year the "The Hurt Locker" made everyone really happy by winning even though about 10% of people watching the Oscars saw this movie. Once again, this movie is very, very good and should be seen but COME ON PEOPLE, Avatar should have walked away with this one. I know it was responsible for the awful 3D craze but it was nothing short of spectacular. At the Golden Globes "The Hangover" won best picture (comedy) which was great to see and it deserved it but no nominations or any love at the Oscars.
Now this past year, I really had faith in my Oscar people that The Social Network would win this one or at the very least Inception would have been in serious contention for the award. But instead we had to watch "The Kings Speech" accept the award. Take me at my word when I say nobody will be talking about that movie in a few years, hell, have you heard anyone talk about it recently?
My point is simple, change who is allowed to vote for the big award. I'm not so bothered about all the other awards, yes I have my serious issues with the acting awards but I will rant about that some other time. Maybe the way to go is let the industry narrow the movies down to 5 and let some kind of public opinion vote between the final five. This would keep out movies like Twilight but give some of the blockbusters a shot at actually winning Best Picture.
I don't see this happening any time soon but I will say that if they don't change this soon the public will lose interest in the Oscars, I personally prefer the Golden Globes these days and that makes me sad.
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