In case you didn't hear, the Academy has made some changes to their awards ceremony. These changes include moving the date to early February, shortening the runtime, and adding a new category for "best popular movie." I personally don't like any of these at all, so I decided to try something new and write about it on here. Here are my reasons for disliking these changes.
First I'll address the first two changes. In regards to the shortening of the runtime I just don't think it will work. I've seen people say awards will be announced during commercial breaks or that the show will no longer be live and I think those are two major mistakes. People tune in to see what films win each big award, so having them during commercial breaks is both unfair to the audience as well as the winner of the award itself. Making the event no longer live will take away from a lot of the excitement. Instead of everyone sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for best picture to be announced someone will have it spoiled for them over twitter or news sites. Neither of these options benefit anyone other than the show runners and people that want to go to bed early.
The date changed I have mixed feelings about. On one hand moving it earlier allows the buzz of these movies to still be fresh, with many coming out in November and December. The time frame from their release to the Oscars will be less that it used to be which could be seen as a positive. Unfortunately I don't think it will work well. With how many movies are nominated it is nearly impossible to watch them all. I couldn't see them all no matter how hard I tried, and I watched nominated films all the way up to the day of the Oscars. This move takes away several weeks of time people could be catching up on the films they missed, and with how short films and foreign films are distributed there's a good chance some films won't have been released everywhere in time for the ceremony.
Now onto my least favourite change, the "best popular movie" category. I think this is the stupidest thing I've seen in a while. I get the idea, nominate big movies to draw in more casual movie fans. However, this negates the point of the Oscars. This ceremony isn't supposed to be a popularity contest, it's supposed to be a night of celebrating the best cinema has had to offer. Casual movie fans every year will always complain when they don't see big movies up for best picture, but in all honesty they usually don't deserve it. Take last year's Wonder Woman for example. I found it to be a quite good movie, but tons of people were pissed when it didn't get nominated for best picture. Looking at the films nominated for best picture, there's only one I found to be worse, and that was Darkest Hour, which while boring showed some incredible filmmaking elements and great performances. And even if Wonder Woman could beat it out, there's dozens of better movies that were nowhere to be seen at the Oscars. This new category seems like nothing more than a sellout, these blockbuster films don't need more recognition, they get that in the hundreds of millions of dollars they make. The Oscars allow more casual moviegoers to find movies they wouldn't have seen otherwise, while these big movies will always draw in a crowd.
I also think that this category is the wrong one to add considering how many others could be added. I think the Academy needs to recognize a stronger diversity of films, so why not add a category of best genre film. Horror, Science-fiction, and Action are often overlooked at the Oscars, but those genres produce some of the best films out there. While it was great to see Get Out snag a best picture nod, films like Blade Runner 2049, Baby Driver, and Split were all left out. With this category those films could be recognized as well as smaller genre pictures such as Colossal, It Comes at Night, and Logan Lucky, all great films that didn't receive enough recognition. Look at all the genre films from over the years without any Oscars, despite how incredible and revolutionary some of them are. This category could fix that and give these great films some more credit.
Another category I think needs to be added is best stunt work. The fact that the craft of action sequences isn't awarded baffles me. This would be an easy way to give credit to action movies, a genre that never gets the Academy's love. Stunt work is one of the hardest things to do in film, so why isn't it praised by the Academy? 2018 alone has had some incredible stunt work, especially from Mission Impossible: Fallout, so it would be great to see this represented at the ceremony.
The last I think should be added is best motion capture or voice performance. These performances are some of the best, but never get due credit and I understand why. When you can't see the actor it's harder to praise their performance. This award would allow performers like Andy Serkis to get the love they deserve, as well as some great voice actors as voice acting is a lot harder than many think.
What I also think would be great about these categories is that they can easily award the big movies that this "best popular movie" category would credit. Most big budget movies are genre movies in some way, most of them have impressive stunt-work, and many of them feature motion capture and voice performances. So why create a category that caters only to people that don't care all that much about film and belittles many cinematic achievements, when you can create a few categories that praise important elements of film-making and bring awareness to more lesser known films, while easily crediting the blockbuster movies when they deserve it. I think this new move from the Academy is really dumb and there are other ways to solve the issues they're having.
Written by Matt McKenzie
First I'll address the first two changes. In regards to the shortening of the runtime I just don't think it will work. I've seen people say awards will be announced during commercial breaks or that the show will no longer be live and I think those are two major mistakes. People tune in to see what films win each big award, so having them during commercial breaks is both unfair to the audience as well as the winner of the award itself. Making the event no longer live will take away from a lot of the excitement. Instead of everyone sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for best picture to be announced someone will have it spoiled for them over twitter or news sites. Neither of these options benefit anyone other than the show runners and people that want to go to bed early.
The date changed I have mixed feelings about. On one hand moving it earlier allows the buzz of these movies to still be fresh, with many coming out in November and December. The time frame from their release to the Oscars will be less that it used to be which could be seen as a positive. Unfortunately I don't think it will work well. With how many movies are nominated it is nearly impossible to watch them all. I couldn't see them all no matter how hard I tried, and I watched nominated films all the way up to the day of the Oscars. This move takes away several weeks of time people could be catching up on the films they missed, and with how short films and foreign films are distributed there's a good chance some films won't have been released everywhere in time for the ceremony.
Now onto my least favourite change, the "best popular movie" category. I think this is the stupidest thing I've seen in a while. I get the idea, nominate big movies to draw in more casual movie fans. However, this negates the point of the Oscars. This ceremony isn't supposed to be a popularity contest, it's supposed to be a night of celebrating the best cinema has had to offer. Casual movie fans every year will always complain when they don't see big movies up for best picture, but in all honesty they usually don't deserve it. Take last year's Wonder Woman for example. I found it to be a quite good movie, but tons of people were pissed when it didn't get nominated for best picture. Looking at the films nominated for best picture, there's only one I found to be worse, and that was Darkest Hour, which while boring showed some incredible filmmaking elements and great performances. And even if Wonder Woman could beat it out, there's dozens of better movies that were nowhere to be seen at the Oscars. This new category seems like nothing more than a sellout, these blockbuster films don't need more recognition, they get that in the hundreds of millions of dollars they make. The Oscars allow more casual moviegoers to find movies they wouldn't have seen otherwise, while these big movies will always draw in a crowd.
I also think that this category is the wrong one to add considering how many others could be added. I think the Academy needs to recognize a stronger diversity of films, so why not add a category of best genre film. Horror, Science-fiction, and Action are often overlooked at the Oscars, but those genres produce some of the best films out there. While it was great to see Get Out snag a best picture nod, films like Blade Runner 2049, Baby Driver, and Split were all left out. With this category those films could be recognized as well as smaller genre pictures such as Colossal, It Comes at Night, and Logan Lucky, all great films that didn't receive enough recognition. Look at all the genre films from over the years without any Oscars, despite how incredible and revolutionary some of them are. This category could fix that and give these great films some more credit.
Another category I think needs to be added is best stunt work. The fact that the craft of action sequences isn't awarded baffles me. This would be an easy way to give credit to action movies, a genre that never gets the Academy's love. Stunt work is one of the hardest things to do in film, so why isn't it praised by the Academy? 2018 alone has had some incredible stunt work, especially from Mission Impossible: Fallout, so it would be great to see this represented at the ceremony.
The last I think should be added is best motion capture or voice performance. These performances are some of the best, but never get due credit and I understand why. When you can't see the actor it's harder to praise their performance. This award would allow performers like Andy Serkis to get the love they deserve, as well as some great voice actors as voice acting is a lot harder than many think.
What I also think would be great about these categories is that they can easily award the big movies that this "best popular movie" category would credit. Most big budget movies are genre movies in some way, most of them have impressive stunt-work, and many of them feature motion capture and voice performances. So why create a category that caters only to people that don't care all that much about film and belittles many cinematic achievements, when you can create a few categories that praise important elements of film-making and bring awareness to more lesser known films, while easily crediting the blockbuster movies when they deserve it. I think this new move from the Academy is really dumb and there are other ways to solve the issues they're having.
Totally agree.
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