10 > 5
The Academy Award Nominations will be announced tomorrow.
I do not care.
Or at least that’s what I say. I’ve made no secret of my distaste for this gaudy, self-congratulatory, unimaginative “celebration” of movies. I wrote extensively about it here. But I can’t deny that my interest is piqued for tomorrow’s announcement. And for one reason only - other than bitter curiosity:
Ten Best Picture nominees.
People have been complaining that this dilutes the supreme, unimpeachable power of the FIVE nominations. But, really… really? … have the five nominees for Best Picture been powerful? Really?
Last year was not a great year for movies. There were few shining
stars. Even so, The Academy disregarded at least two of the more interesting choices (In Bruges and Gran Torino - the only English-speaking masterpieces of the year that I can think of) and went with the more inevitable indie-feel-good movie (Slumdog Millionaire), the “small” historical/issue movies (Milk, Frost/Nixon), the bloated Oscar-bait (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and the holocaust story (The Reader).
Those are all fine movies (except for Benjamin Button - David Fincher, what in the WORLD, dude???). One is pretty great. But In Bruges and Gran Torino are at least much more interesting choices…if not infinitely better than all the aforementioned selections. Even these near-greats of 2008 would have been better choices: The Dark Knight, Wall-E, Doubt, The Wrestler…
I’ll go back a few years to when the Oscars did go head over heels for an Eastwood flick - Million Dollar Baby. Its fellow nominees included a much better movie (the quiet, astringently funny, eccentric masterpiece Sideways) that the Academy should be extremely proud to have noticed; an extremely entertaining, exotic, smart, but somehow faltering biopic (The Aviator); and then two awful awful atrocious movies made with the sole intent to grab the Oscar gold (Finding Neverland and Ray).
That’s a typical year for the Oscars. There’s always some good stuff. Of course there is. These are industry people. They understand what makes a good movie. More importantly - they LIKE movies. But they’re also old. And easily fooled. And hesitant to embrace the truly dangerous or unique. The year of Million Dollar Baby also saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kill Bill 2, Anchorman, Shaun of the Dead, Before Sunset, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban…even The Passion of the Christ. Most of them aren’t masterpieces. But wouldn’t it have been great to have seen some of these (and I’ll take a few of your others) celebrated and revered so publicly?
This is a chance for these movies to shine in front of millions of people who may not otherwise get to see them shine. To see them celebrated because of their excellence and gleeful filmmaking rather than simply because of their boxoffice returns. Does the stricter limitation of the category really contribute to any of these movies being regarded more highly in the future? Don’t forget that even Citizen Kane lost the award for Best Picture (to John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley - ever see that one?) back in 1941. Yeah, sure, it got nominated. But is its nomination the thing that’s remembered?
2007 was an incredible year for movies. And it was a rare year to see a complete compilation of five terrific Best Picture nominees. And yet the thing still bothered me. There were so many other movies to celebrate besides No Country for Old Men, Michael Clayton, Atonement, Juno and even the co-best movie of the decade, There Will Be Blood (24 Hour Party People ties with it). 2007 also saw these masterpieces - Ratatouille, Zodiac, Sweeney Todd; and these great movies - Knocked Up, Eastern Promises, Once, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Superbad…and many more.
And here’s a short list of some of the other movies they’ve missed throughout the years…
City Lights, King Kong, Duck Soup, Singin’ in the Rain, Rear
Window, The Night of the Hunter, The Searchers, Sweet Smell of Success, Vertigo, Touch of Evil, North by Northwest, Some Like it Hot, Rio Bravo, Psycho, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Big, The Last Temptation of Christ, Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Player, Short Cuts, Boogie Nights, Jackie Brown, Waiting for Guffman, Rushmore, Mulholland Drive, Pride & Prejudice (2005), Children of Men…
1999 was a particularly egregious year that saw The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile and the Sixth Sense nominated over Being John Malkovich, Magnolia, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Toy Story 2, and, yeah goddammit, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut…among others. (American Beauty was great but didn’t deserve to win; at least they got the incredibly powerful The Insider right…)
Again. I don’t really care that these movies weren’t nominated. It doesn’t hurt their places in history. It just hurts the Oscars.
But wouldn’t it have been great to see all these movies proudly celebrated together? At this glorified party that thinks it’s a lot more important that it is? It’s a party. Just that. And that’s how it should be performed - as the biggest party for movies of every year. I believe that expanding the Best Picture category to ten strengthens the Oscars. The more nominees, the more celebration, the better.
