Oscar you dick! I guess you’re just giving out nominations to everybody this year. I’m half surprised Michael Bay didn’t get one for Best Director.
The Academy Awards decided to extend the Best Picture category from five to ten films for the first time since 1943, purely for marketing reasons. In no way does extending the field to ten movies create more competition. There is no possible way a popcorn flick like The Blind Side should be nominated for Best Picture. Since when does box office value equate to Oscar nominations? Is the award committee handing out nominations to movies like The Blind Side to attract a wider audience to the show? The move to expand is purely a marketing move; think of all the new movie advertising campaigns featuring recent nominations and the studios making bank as a result. Audiences are more likely to watch/rent/purchase a movie if it’s nominated for prestigious awards.
Is the Academy really willing to sully its reputation to include a couple unworthy films? Does anyone else think it’s fucked up that The Blind Side and District 9 are forever going to be listed in the same category as past nominees like Chinatown, Raging Bull, and Pulp Fiction? The Grammy Awards are supposed to be a whore to the music industry, the Oscars are supposed to mean something.
February 05, 2010 at 4:52 pm, John said:
Well said.