The Look Up

So the Oscar nominations were officially announced yesterday, and while for a good part of my life I have always waited in anticipation to see which of my predictions came true, this year I haven’t really been all that interested. Truth be told, I haven’t really been interested in the Oscars ever since the Academy decided it would be a good idea to replace the 5 film Best Picture category with 10 films instead, citing that it wanted to go back to its roots and honor 10 films like it once did. Of course, that “once did” was about 70 years ago, when Casablanca won Best Picture over, for what would be the last time in awhile, 9 other films. We all know that the real reason for this change was to get more ratings, to get more films into the biggest award of the night and to attract a more diverse set of viewers. More nominations allows for blockbusters movies like The Dark Knight and District 9 to join the exclusive group of films that includes the likes of Lawrence of Arabia, Gone With The Wind, and The Godfather. Best Picture has always been about excellence in all categories of film, and with the increase in nominations, we see films with as few as 2 total nominations (e.g. the easily forgettable A Serious Man that was nominated in 2009) getting recognized in the field. With the inclusion of 10 nominations, the Academy has completely diluted what once was the most prestigious award in all of the film industry, and is pretty much the sole reason why I have stopped my tradition of religiously following Oscar buzz and waiting in anticipation for the noms. Even then, its not like there are any other awards shows that deserves half the respect of the Academy, as we’ve seen with the recent passing of the Golden Globes, the second-rate, even more commercialized version of the Oscars and Emmys combined into one awkwardly A to D-list attended ceremony. While I was glad that Claire Danes won her much-deserved award for Best Leading Actress in a TV Drama Series, I was definitely not anywhere close to impressed by the other four “TV Lead Acting” winners. All four awards, were given to rookie shows, with special hilarity given to Matt Leblanc winning an acting award for a show in which he plays Matt Leblanc. 

So this is a plea, to the Academy and its honorary members, to please change Best Picture back to the 5 film category it once was. I have always respected the Academy Awards because even given its mainstream nature, it still recognizes some of the world’s best independent and low-budget art films. And while the Oscars have surely sold out a little bit more with its 10 film Best Picture category, it still ends up getting most of its awards to the right films in the end. Oddly enough, this year’s Best Picture category has only included 9 films. Confusing, but I hope this is progress. While the 9 nominations is still definitely a nuisance, I have just decided on the strategy of blocking out the least deserving films and forming a Top 5 of which films I think deserves to be up there. So here’s it is, my list of the actual Best Picture nominees, back in its rightful 5 category nature. Agree or disagree, blame the Academy for the allowance of this freedom :)

Best Picture:

The Artist

The Descendants

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

War Horse