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Oscars 2019.


The Natural

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These changes all boil down to DISNEY owning almost all of pop film now, right?    I mean, ABC broadcasts the Oscars.  ABC is owned by the Mouse.  There is gossip out there in the dirty sheets(?) focusing on ABC pushing the Oscar people for changes.  Dots can be connected.  I'm sure the ratings for last year's show is a factor too.

I think the Oscars could use a lot of updating and shots in the arm because who, under 25, gives a damn about the traditions of a Hollywood awards show? However, this one feels lazy and depending on how they define "popular" kind of insulting to films in the Best Picture category and some of the films that will end up in the category itself.  Oh well.  They should release the voting numbers though.

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27 minutes ago, _MJ_ said:

These changes all boil down to DISNEY owning almost all of pop film now, right?    I mean, ABC broadcasts the Oscars.  ABC is owned by the Mouse.  There is gossip out there in the dirty sheets(?) focusing on ABC pushing the Oscar people for changes.  Dots can be connected.  I'm sure the ratings for last year's show is a factor too.

It's definitely both of these things. And more.

It's partially the Dark Knight thing, where the things they're nominating lack any cultural relevance so nobody cares. I'm fine with something being done to address that, since all expanding the field has done is make more room for the normal stuffy films the academy gravitates toward anyway. I loved Phantom Thread, but people aren't tuning in for that kind of fare. It's also probably a swing at #OscarsSoWhite to implement this when Black Panther will be eligible. 

I'm sure at least one of the nominees for this glorified consolation prize will also be nominated for the big prize. That'll probably be the odds on favourite to win the new category. My guess would be A Quiet Place if the academy gave a popcorn fart about horror.

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On 8/8/2018 at 1:27 PM, J.T. said:

Did the MPAA really need to create a special category for Black Panther and other critically acclaimed blockbusters?

 

Don't worry, it's a separate category, but equal.

Seriously, though.  The optics aren't good.  It looks like they're creating a new category just to keep a popular film with a majority black cast out of the other categories. 

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4 hours ago, Technico Support said:

Don't worry, it's a separate category, but equal.

Seriously, though.  The optics aren't good.  It looks like they're creating a new category just to keep a popular film with a majority black cast out of the other categories. 

Well, it's also 1) a comic-book movie with 2) a non-white cast, but 3) it was critically beloved and 4) participated in a number of timely social discussions while also 5) featuring excellent acting from its primary players.

I mean, that's 3 out of 5 things about it that Academy members should love, so being in a "popular film" category makes sense?

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I thought Black Panther was a bit overrated. Perfectly good origin story, and a solid addition to the MCU movie universe, but nothing more. For this new stupid category, the winnder should be Avengers, as it blew BP away, and everything else too.

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I thought about this again: the easiest way to get where they want is doing it similar as the Golden Globes and splitting the best picture category. I think three categories would work out best: best drama, best comedy and best action film while scrapping the best animated feature film.

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On 8/9/2018 at 10:02 PM, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

It's definitely both of these things. And more.

It's partially the Dark Knight thing, where the things they're nominating lack any cultural relevance so nobody cares. I'm fine with something being done to address that, since all expanding the field has done is make more room for the normal stuffy films the academy gravitates toward anyway. I loved Phantom Thread, but people aren't tuning in for that kind of fare. It's also probably a swing at #OscarsSoWhite to implement this when Black Panther will be eligible. 

I'm sure at least one of the nominees for this glorified consolation prize will also be nominated for the big prize. That'll probably be the odds on favourite to win the new category. My guess would be A Quiet Place if the academy gave a popcorn fart about horror.

I can also see the other side of the argument, through.  Where part of the de facto purpose of the Oscars in this cultural economy is to give films like Phantom Thread a chance to have any kind of audience at all.  The risk here is that everyone tunes in to see which popular movie wins the popular Oscar and just treats that as "Best Picture" and doesn't even register or care about the actual "Best Picture" category and no one needs to be challenged to explore or even notice the movies that don't come with a Happy Meal toy.

There is a little snobby voice in my head that says "What, do the big budget superhero movies not get enough exposure? It's not enough that they "win" all the money and "win" all the cultural space now they have to win the actual trophies too?"

I know it's snobby and it's part of the anti-poptimism argument, as in

Quote

Deployed reflexively, it becomes worshipful of fame. It treats megastars, despite their untold corporate resources, like underdogs. It grants immunity to a lot of dim music. Worst of all, it asks everyone to agree on the winners and then cheer louder.

but even though it's snobby it has some merit to it, no?  That whatever tiny tiny little space is left over nowadays in the conversation for non-action movies is now being colonized and we're all supposed to say "Thank God, that one little polar bear on that one little bit of ice is getting pushed aside so I can have more parking!!! Finally!!!"

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I think Black Panther was certainly great enough to be nominated for Best Picture.  I don't think it's quite good enough to win Best Picture.  But it's ridiculous to have it go win some viewer's choice award and be left out of the BP category.  It's insulting to Black Panther and the cast/crew and it's also insulting to the other films that will be nominated for BP.  

If they weren't such shit voters there wouldn't be a need for this second category.  Nominate the best films period regardless of popularity and you avoid this garbage. 

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I think the Academy will end up painting themselves into a corner with this new award. Since they've already said movies can be in both Best Picture and Popular Achievement. People are going to question why a movie is in one but not the other. And if Popluar Achievement just ends up being all the Action/Superhero movies. Then people should just start demanding the Oscars have a Best Comedy, Best Musical, Best Horror, ect categories. 

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2 hours ago, AxB said:

So are the Golden Razzies going to counter with an "Outstanding Achievement in Unpopular Film" award?

Some kind of Worst Most Obvious Oscar Bait is more likely to make me take the Razzies seriously than a Best Popular Movie is to make me take the Oscars seriously.

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On 8/8/2018 at 7:14 PM, Robert s said:

How do they plan to assign this Oscar? Best box-office numbers? I mean if they plan to have voting by the academy itself this could get really stupid as they would have to define some really strange criteria (like "best movie that you think is kind-of-dumb" or similar).

Personally, I thought this was a good concept for an award, but the problem is that you'd kind of need it to be in conjunction with a website (my theory on how to do it is: Ally the award with either IMDB or RottenTomatoes. Top 25 movies of the year in their rating score are eligible for nomination, and you MUST pick 9 of them. The 10th nomination spot goes to the number one box office movie of the year, regardless of its quality. If it's Black Panther, it's Black Panther. If it's Transformers, it's Transformers, but the number one box office movie gets a nomination.

 

End result: The number one box office movie gets recognition (even if it's not necessarily a win), but there's still some semblance of "popular quality" to the other nominees and you can get a good mix of "what's popular" and "what is GOOD.") 

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