Academy Awards adding a "Best Popular Film" category. Good or bad idea? Academy walks it back, won't be presented this year

[vc2002]

This is like a girl who likes to hang out with you but refuses to have sex with you.

[IronJimbo]

23 minutes ago, vc2002 said:

This is like a girl who likes to hang out with you but refuses to have sex with you.

we must get a new girl.. or forget about them completely

[Jessie]

32 minutes ago, vc2002 said:

This is like a girl who likes to hang out with you but refuses to have sex with you.

like a sister? 

[IronJimbo]

3 minutes ago, Jessie said:

like a sister? 

you animal

[Crainy]

What a terrible idea for a category. I have no respect for the oscars, its pretty obvious that they only have a very limited view on movies as art and their system is flawed from the ground up.

 

This category sounds like a stand-in for saying "We think your movies are worthless but heres an award just to make you happy". What a joke.

Edited August 10, 2018 by Crainy

[filmlover]

Also amusing is that John Bailey said that he wanted the Oscars to "feel less like the Independent Spirit Awards" so his so-called solution was to make it feel more like the Peoples Choice Awards lol. Surprised a "how do you do, fellow kids" wasn't snuck in there somewhere.

[chasmmi]

But what happens if one of the good films happens to also be popular? 

 

It would be odd to claim that something like La La Land was or Get Out was not popular enough to be a popular film.

[The Futurist]

Harvey did this.

[Valonqar]

13 hours ago, 4815162342 said:

 

They did fix the problem. Look at 2009 and 2010

 

2009:

Avatar

The Blind Side

The Hurt Locker

District 9

An Education

Inglourious Basterds

Precious

A Serious Man

Up

Up in the Air

 

Nope, not even close. cause that year, they awarded the least watched movie of all times, yes THL had the smallest boxoffice of any winner ever, a truly abysmal 16M, and they made a big point about "David beating Goliath" which is to say that the very first year where they expanded the field to give big movie a fair chance, they used it to mock the biggest movie that was in serious contention to win. And no wonder that very shortly after, they came up with "preferential ballot" that shortened the field to 7-8 nominees and made the win for genre movies just as tough as when there was 5 nominees. Cause the AMPAS preferences certainly aren't with CB movies. 

 

Nominations aren't the point because they are consolation. Winning is the point and it's been very tough for genre to win. The Shape of Water win came 14 years after ROTK win. 14 years for another fantasy movie. And now they are blocking sci fi and fantasy and horror and action by giving them Popular category. 

 

So why is this shit happening? Are they afraid that Black Panther wouldn't make preferential ballot for blockbuster slot in the regular Best Picture line-up or are they afraid that it could - gasp - win? A CB movie, the winner? Cause this change is 100% about Black Panther, not about popular movies in general. 

Edited August 10, 2018 by Valonqar

[Crainy]

1 hour ago, Valonqar said:

Nope, not even close. cause that year, they awarded the least watched movie of all times, yes THL had the smallest boxoffice of any winner ever, a truly abysmal 16M, and they made a big point about "David beating Goliath" which is to say that the very first year where they expanded the field to give big movie a fair chance, they used it to mock the biggest movie that was in serious contention to win. And no wonder that very shortly after, they came up with "preferential ballot" that shortened the field to 7-8 nominees and made the win for genre movies just as tough as when there was 5 nominees. Cause the AMPAS preferences certainly aren't with CB movies. 

 

Nominations aren't the point because they are consolation. Winning is the point and it's been very tough for genre to win. The Shape of Water win came 14 years after ROTK win. 14 years for another fantasy movie. And now they are blocking sci fi and fantasy and horror and action by giving them Popular category. 

 

So why is this shit happening? Are they afraid that Black Panther wouldn't make preferential ballot for blockbuster slot in the regular Best Picture line-up or are they afraid that it could - gasp - win? A CB movie, the winner? Cause this change is 100% about Black Panther, not about popular movies in general. 

I dont quite follow, what does this change have to do with Black Panther? I´d argue no Marvel movie so far should be anywhere close to a "best picture" award, oscars or not.

Edited August 10, 2018 by Crainy

[filmlover]

2 minutes ago, Crainy said:

I dont quite follow, what does this change have to do with Black Panther? I´d argue no Marvel movie so far should be anywhere close to a "best picture" award, oscars or not.

Black Panther was arguably the first comic book movie since The Dark Knight 10 years ago that had actual Oscar buzz and it's been assumed that this change was done so that they had a "sorry not sorry" approach to awarding the movie without having to nominate a comic book movie for Best Picture.

 

But the more that's been revealed about this, the more clear it has become that these changes were only done to please Disney/ABC.

[Crainy]

4 minutes ago, filmlover said:

Black Panther was arguably the first comic book movie since The Dark Knight 10 years ago that had actual Oscar buzz and it's been assumed that this change was done so that they had a "sorry not sorry" approach to awarding the movie without having to nominate a comic book movie for Best Picture.

 

But the more that's been revealed about this, the more clear it has become that these changes were only done to please Disney/ABC.

Considering the voting base of the academy, I dont think that would have been a concern, theres no way they would have given the Oscar to Black Panther. Your latter point makes alot more sense.

Edited August 10, 2018 by Crainy

[Rebeccas]

12 minutes ago, Crainy said:

I dont quite follow, what does this change have to do with Black Panther? I´d argue no Marvel movie so far should be anywhere close to a "best picture" award, oscars or not.

BP currently has a higher RT and Metacritic score than The Dark Knight. The Academy is clearly afraid that if their old white membership snubs a highly rated blockbuster again (especially if it's in favor of mediocre Oscar bait like The Reader again), it'll just be TDK backlash all over again and they're trying to get ahead of the curve by doing this.

[Valonqar]

Yep. But they fucked up cause this isn't the way. Educate your membership so that their bias against CB and other genre movies dissolves. This shit ain't it.

Edited August 10, 2018 by Valonqar

[Crainy]

8 minutes ago, Rebeccas said:

BP currently has a higher RT and Metacritic score than The Dark Knight. The Academy is clearly afraid that if their old white membership snubs a highly rated blockbuster again (especially if it's in favor of mediocre Oscar bait like The Reader again), it'll just be TDK backlash all over again and they're trying to get ahead of the curve by doing this.

Both Metacritic and Rottentomatoes are jokes of a site and I dont think their scores should be taken seriously when considering the quality of a movie. To say that a movie is the best picture of the year just because it has an arbitrary high number on a site that equates movies with spoiled fruit is ridiculous. Especially seeing how trying to boil down a piece of art into a number is complete nonsense.

 

The oscars have many flaws, but not listening to scores isnt one of them.

[Rebeccas]

5 minutes ago, Crainy said:

Both Metacritic and Rottentomatoes are jokes of a site and I dont think their scores should be taken seriously when considering the quality of a movie. To say that a movie is the best picture of the year just because it has an arbitrary high number on a site that equates movies with spoiled fruit is ridiculous. Especially seeing how trying to boil down a piece of art into a number is complete nonsense.

 

The oscars have many flaws, but not listening to scores isnt one of them.

MC has very strong correlation to Best Picture. No winner in the last decade has scored lower than 85 on metacritic. It's also just a sign of overall critical acclaim since it only includes top critics, which ultimately plays a huge role in which movies get money for campaigns.

[4815162342]

1 hour ago, Valonqar said:

Nope, not even close. cause that year, they awarded the least watched movie of all times, yes THL had the smallest boxoffice of any winner ever, a truly abysmal 16M, and they made a big point about "David beating Goliath" which is to say that the very first year where they expanded the field to give big movie a fair chance, they used it to mock the biggest movie that was in serious contention to win. And no wonder that very shortly after, they came up with "preferential ballot" that shortened the field to 7-8 nominees and made the win for genre movies just as tough as when there was 5 nominees. Cause the AMPAS preferences certainly aren't with CB movies. 

 

Nominations aren't the point because they are consolation. Winning is the point and it's been very tough for genre to win. The Shape of Water win came 14 years after ROTK win. 14 years for another fantasy movie. And now they are blocking sci fi and fantasy and horror and action by giving them Popular category. 

 

So why is this shit happening? Are they afraid that Black Panther wouldn't make preferential ballot for blockbuster slot in the regular Best Picture line-up or are they afraid that it could - gasp - win? A CB movie, the winner? Cause this change is 100% about Black Panther, not about popular movies in general. 

 

Hurt Locker was one of the best nominees, better than "Goliath", so it winning was no issue.

Edited August 10, 2018 by 4815162342

[filmlover]

Pointing out The Hurt Locker's low box office total is also a pointless endeavor when it was released in the middle of the summer far away from Oscar season and certainly would've made much more than it did had it opened in December.

[Valonqar]

11 minutes ago, 4815162342 said:

 

Hurt Locker was one of the best nominees, better than "Goliath", so it winning was no issue.

was completely unmemorable, has no traction anymore, most people think Inglorious bastards should have won. It coattailed Bigelow's First female Winner narrative. That's all. 

 

@filmlover It's not pointless. They pitted the biggest movie that had excellent chance to win against the smallest and did eevrything in their power to tip the scale in the smallest movie's favor, although the point of expanded field was to give big movies a chance. So they couldn't stay true to their idea but used it to assure that the big movie didn't win. Heck, THL pathetic producer Nicholas Chartier was caught rigging votes in THL favor, cause his emails to AMPAS members "vote against Avatar" resurfaced and nothing happened. he got a slap on the wrist (banned from attending the ceremony, big deal). Screw that shit.  

 

My point is that they were never serious about blockbusters having a chance. 

Edited August 10, 2018 by Valonqar

[Crainy]

14 minutes ago, Rebeccas said:

MC has very strong correlation to Best Picture. No winner in the last decade has scored lower than 85 on metacritic. It's also just a sign of overall critical acclaim since it only includes top critics, which ultimately plays a huge role in which movies get money for campaigns.

MC is indeed the lesser evil of the two, but I simply disagree with the concept of ratings in general, which is why a site devoted to it will always be a joke to me. RT on the other hand is a site that seems to be actively at odds with actual critical, worthwhile analysis and appreciation of film and I despise it for that.

Edited August 10, 2018 by Crainy