Academy Weighing Return to Five Best Picture Nominees
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is seriously considering a return to its former policy of having only five best picture nominees, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. That number would be down from a maximum of 10 that are allowed by the current rules.
Read more: Hollywood Reporter link (March 3, 2015).
I really hope this is true. It was a huge mistake to raise it in the first place. They did it to be “inclusive” so films like The Dark Knight and more popular choices might be recognized (if you doubt that, read the press on it when it happened, or just read this article).
Instead they have more independent art-house films that don’t deserve the nomination AND four people saw them. Some of the recent nominees only received a Best Pic nomination and maybe one other. That’s it. If the film is up for the highest honor as an overall “best” choice and can’t score nominations in any other category as “outstanding,” then what the hell is so special about it? And something is really messed up.
I also hate the crazy, gerrymandering voting system of how they throw out percentages of the highest and lowest and end up rounding off to the square root of an isosceles triangle to get the top choices. How about something really insane, like the TOP FIVE CHOICES GET ON THE BALLOT. Crazy idea, right?
They can’t have it both ways. It should be a tough competition for “best,” not a diplomatic basket of lollipops to be handed out to the entire class (or not at all). The “everybody gets a gold star” mentality is burying the award and any meaning it has or had (yes, they are undermining its history as well). There should be upsets and surprises and snubs. That’s the drama for the public. By taking that away, you lose your audience. The award and the Academy itself was created as a promotional device for the public. It is motion picture PR to promote positive awareness of the industry. They have always needed and wanted that. But they can’t pretend it’s not a competition, and a fierce and costly (and sometimes corrupt) one at that.
They need to stop playing politics with their elitist award that’s only managed to become more elitist and less inclusive in the past decade. Well done, Academy! Well done.
Comments
Academy Weighing Return to Five Best Picture Nominees — No Comments
HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>