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

[CoolioD1]

Just now, The Futurist said:

So you are saying that people are enough sheeps to go see a film because an award body said it was excellent ?

Always knew cinephiles moved in herds.

i think awards just project the movies to a higher level of ubiquity and public knowledge. folks like my parents probably wouldn't know about these movies if they weren't talked about a bunch in the media due to awards and the like. maybe they'd like other indie movies that release in the summer that don't get that attention but idk they never hear about them.

 

btw aren't you kinda doing the same thing when you see all these movies every year for the sole purpose of whining about how much people are sheep for liking them and AMPAS are terrible for awarding them? it's just a different angle on exactly what you're talking about. did you watch manchester by the sea because you really wanted to see it?

[Ozymandias]

They should be nominating more genre stuff, but lets face it, the only one that actually deserved to win since LotR was Fury Road and maybe BR2049.  

 

The cape stuff just ain't cutting it.

 

 

 

 

[dudalb]

On ‎8‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 5:49 AM, aabattery said:

I swear the concept of different opinions is like an alien concept to some of you guys.

You just noted that?

It's a carryover from online fandom in general....a great many fans cannot bear to hear the object of their fan devotion criticized in any way.

 

[dudalb]

I predict this award is going to backfire..and winning it will be something of a stigma.,with the implication you were not good enough to compete for the artistic BP,and are being rewarded for making a lot of money.

As a couple of people have pointed out, real problem is the kind of film that the Academy voters used to love rewarding..the serious drama that made big money...has vanished. Can you imagine a Kramer vs Kramer making 350 million today (which is hat it adjusts to) ?

Edited August 14, 2018 by dudalb

[filmlover]

6 hours ago, CoolioD1 said:

honestly today i think past Oscar season breakouts like slumdog millionaire or Juno would probably tap out at like 50-60mil.

Eh, La La Land grossed $150M+ almost two years ago and that tapped into the same zeitgeist appeal that those films did. Then again, it did have two very marketable faces at the forefront to sell it, unlike those films.

[Jake Gittes]

Slumdog is enough of a rousing crowdpleaser that it could see it approaching its 2008 total today. Juno might have been a more wait-for-home-video kinda deal, yeah. 

[Jessie]

10 hours ago, Ozymandias said:

They should be nominating more genre stuff, but lets face it, the only one that actually deserved to win since LotR was Fury Road and maybe BR2049.  

 

The cape stuff just ain't cutting it.

 

 

 

 

lol anyone who thinks fury road or BR2049 is more deserving than TDK doesnt deserve an opinion

[AniNate]

14 hours ago, TalismanRing said:

Everyone depends on Oscar to point out the good stuff that might not otherwise be seen

 

Uh, that's not the point of the Oscars at all (it's supposedly to reward excellence in film) and it only points those films out if their studio/distributor is willing to spend tens of millions campaigning for the awards. 

 

 

 

 

 

It may not be the point per se, but it is the most concrete practical benefit of the ceremony. Moonlight had its biggest weekend at the box office right after it won Best Picture, more than three months after its initial wide expansion. 

 

Unfortunately not every great indie / specialty film benefits from that bump, but it remains a big reason major studios are still willing to support them.  

 

 

Edited August 14, 2018 by tribefan695

[eddyxx]

On 8/8/2018 at 12:38 PM, IronJimbo said:

Titanic just got it's 14th oscar! I mean they gave Pele a worldcup medal 40 years later so why not.

Would Titanic and Avatar have been shoved off into the “popular movie “ category if they released today?

[FantasticBeasts]

23 hours ago, AndyK said:

They nominated Boss Baby over Lego Batman.

 

Why does anybody think a popular movie category is going to make them any less stupid?

 

 

Pretty good decision imo.

[AndyK]

20 minutes ago, FantasticBeasts said:

Pretty good decision imo.

Certified rotten

 

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_boss_baby

[The Futurist]

The dichotomy this year between Critics reception and audience reception for Avengers Infinity War is pretty baffling and telling.

The movie will go down as a classic of its genre, probably the ultimate superhero movie.

Even the dudebros agree AIW is a classic in the making : 

 

Rank & Title	IMDb Rating	Your Rating
	1. Les évadés (1994)	9,2
	2. Le parrain (1972)	9,2
	3. Le parrain, 2ème partie (1974)	9,0
	4. The Dark Knight: Le chevalier noir (2008)	9,0
	5. 12 hommes en colère (1957)	8,9
	6. La liste de Schindler (1993)	8,9
	7. Le seigneur des anneaux: Le retour du roi (2003)	8,9
	8. Pulp Fiction (1994)	8,9
	9. Le bon, la brute et le truand (1966)	8,8
	10. Fight Club (1999)	8,8
	11. Le seigneur des anneaux: La communauté de l'anneau (2001)	8,8
	12. Forrest Gump (1994)	8,7
	13. L'empire contre-attaque (1980)	8,7
	14. Inception (2010)	8,7
	15. Le seigneur des anneaux: Les deux tours (2002)	8,7
	16. Vol au-dessus d'un nid de coucou (1975)	8,7
	17. Les affranchis (1990)	8,7
	18. Matrix (1999)	8,6
	19. Les sept samouraïs (1954)	8,6
	20. La cité de Dieu (2002)	8,6
	21. La guerre des étoiles (1977)	8,6
	22. Seven (1995)	8,6
	23. Le silence des agneaux (1991)	8,6
	24. La vie est belle (1946)	8,6
	25. La vie est belle (1997)	8,6
	26. Usual Suspects (1995)	8,5
	27. Le voyage de Chihiro (2001)	8,5
	28. Il faut sauver le soldat Ryan (1998)	8,5
	29. Léon (1994)	8,5
	30. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)	8,5

 

 

But for Critics, boring cinephiles & awards bodies,  Avengers IW commit way too many crimes & sins against Cinema :

 

- too much CGI, rumor has it Edgar Wright was ready to shoot his version of Ant Man with real giant ants.

- too many Jokes, ykes.

- too genre-y, too pure for its own good

- too superhero-y

- not trying hard enough to be a western or a Michael Mann remake.

- too franchise-y for its own good, movie number 44 in the MCU factory.

- the directors don't scream at your face at every frame they are IMPORTANT AUTEURS !!!

- too much Computer Graphics Imagery.

- made too much money 

 

It cannot possibly have artistic merit or be a meaningful piece of Filmmaking, right ?

Right ?

Edited August 14, 2018 by The Futurist

[CoolioD1]

yeah it's critics score and audience score on rotten tomatoes is a gigantic 8% gap. real dichotomy there.

[Ozymandias]

9 hours ago, Jessie said:

lol anyone who thinks fury road or BR2049 is more deserving than TDK doesnt deserve an opinion

They absolutely are

 

Come at me bro

[grim22]

WTF does this even mean

 

https://variety.com/2018/film/features/oscars-popular-film-category-ratings-academy-1202903865/

Quote

“We’re not talking about honoring movies that don’t deserve it. That’s what I think people are reading into this,” said screenwriter and Academy governor Larry Karaszewski, who was recently elected vice president of the organization. “I think the idea is to have an award that makes blockbusters better.”

 

Also

Quote

Nevertheless, there was debate within the Academy’s 54-member board of governors over the measure, which was approved via secret ballot (not uncommon when there’s internal division) at the group’s monthly meeting on Aug. 7. Another proposed change — the shift of certain live presentations and acceptance speeches to commercial breaks that would then be edited into a truncated package aired later in the telecast — won over some skeptics with a demonstration of what that might entail. “It cuts out a huge dilemma, which is the 60 seconds or more of people walking from their seats to the stage,” one insider said. “That’s the kind of streamlining the Academy is thinking about.”

OH THE HORROR. Can you imagine watching the winners walk to the stage while overcome with emotion upon winning and giving the audiences a look into some genuine human drama?

[TalismanRing]

Just now, grim22 said:

WTF does this even mean

 

https://variety.com/2018/film/features/oscars-popular-film-category-ratings-academy-1202903865/

 

 

You see blockbusters now have something to strive for besides money. 

 

We all know they're not really worthy to be nominated for real Oscars but by giving them this carrot we hope that they can at least try to be worthy like the way Animated, Foreign and Documentaries try to be worthy of their Best Film Ghetto Oscars.

 

 

[Barnack]

49 minutes ago, TalismanRing said:

 

You see blockbusters now have something to strive for besides money. 

 

We all know they're not really worthy to be nominated for real Oscars but by giving them this carrot we hope that they can at least try to be worthy like the way Animated, Foreign and Documentaries try to be worthy of their Best Film Ghetto Oscars.

The people taking those decision and talking are not the same as the people voting, the governor are people that have worked on blockbuster like Laura Dern, Whoopi, people that worked on Men in Black, people that just worked on the Wonder Woman/Justice League/Marry Poppins Return/Mission Impossible Fallout, etc... The editor of Terminator 2, Rise of the planet of the apes, E.T., Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the people making the score for Star Wars, writers of the Hunger games, etc..

 

http://www.oscars.org/about/board-of-governors

 

It is Spielberg, Jim Gianopulos , etc... when you get there you often have made the industry a lot of money and worked on big projects.

 

I do not think it is fair to compress the leadership/board of governors and is voters, probably that would it have been in the control of the first after the first year of #oscarsoWhite we would not have had an second all white acting nominees in a row, Dark Knight would have got in BP and so on.

 

The leader of that group allegedly complained the BP line up matched too much the Spirit Awards one.

 

The creation on an incentive to try to make the next Titanic/Avatar movie is the good public one to have for this, saying that it is rating or angry of the most powerful people in the industry that want more recognition would both be bad PR.

Edited August 14, 2018 by Barnack

[TalismanRing]

10 minutes ago, Barnack said:

The people taking those decision and talking are not the same as the people voting, the governor are people that have worked on blockbuster like Laura Dern, Whoopi, people that worked on Men in Black, people that just worked on the Wonder Woman/Justice League/Marry Poppins Return/Mission Impossible Fallout, etc... The editor of Terminator 2, Rise of the planet of the apes, E.T., Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the people making the score for Star Wars, writers of the Hunger games, etc..

 

http://www.oscars.org/about/board-of-governors

 

It is Spielberg, Jim Gianopulos , etc... when you get there you often have made the industry a lot of money and worked on big projects.

 

I do not think it is fair to compress the leadership/board of governors and is voters, probably that would it have been in the control of the first after the first year of #oscarsoWhite we would not have had an second all white acting nominees in a row, Dark Knight would have got in BP and so on.

 

The creation on an incentive to try to make the next Titanic/Avatar movie is the good public one to have for this, saying that it is rating or angry of the most powerful people in the industry that want more recognition would both be bad PR.

That's just really insulting and condescending and again doesn't justify having another category.    It's their voting rules that suck - change those back to 2009 & 2010.

 

But then this is the voting body that created Best Animated category after Beauty & The Beast was nominated for Best Film.   One can't have the kind of film taking up space from real movies.

 

 

Edited August 14, 2018 by TalismanRing

[Barnack]

3 minutes ago, TalismanRing said:

But then this is the voting body that created Best Animated category after Beauty & The Beast was nominated for Best Film.   One can't have the kind of film taking up space from real movies.

 

Category launched in 2002?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Animated_Feature

 

Beauty & The beast was 10 year's before in 1991, I doubt it is strongly linked before the 2.

 

It was because of big the competition and level of success of those with Shrek/Monster inc. giant success I think, that brought that category.

 

 

 

 

 

[TalismanRing]

13 minutes ago, Barnack said:

Category launched in 2002?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Animated_Feature

 

Beauty & The beast was 10 year's before in 1991, I doubt it is strongly linked before the 2.

 

It was because of big the competition and level of success of those with Shrek/Monster inc. giant success I think, that brought that category.

 

 

Damn, I thought it was created in the mid 90s  I got it confused with the split in Musical Score so those animated Disney films would stop beating those real musical scores from real movies.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Original_Score

Quote

Following the wins of four Walt Disney Feature Animation films in six years from 1990 to 1995 (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King) during a period called the Disney Renaissance, it was decided to once again split the Best Original Score category by genres, this time by combining comedies and musicals together. As Alan Bergman, the chairman of the Academy's music branch said, "People were voting for the songs, not the underscores. We felt that Academy members outside the music branch didn't distinguish between the two. So when a score like The Lion King is competing against a drama like Forrest Gump, it's apples and oranges – not in the quality of the score, but in the way it functions in the movie. There's a big difference."^[3] The category was therefore split into Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Musical or Comedy Score in 1996. This change proved unpopular in the other branches of the Academy as Charles Bernstein, chairman of the Academy's rules committee, noted that "no other Oscar category depended on a film's genre" and "the job of composing an underscore for a romantic comedy is not substantially different from working on a heavy drama."^[4] This split was reverted in 2000.

 

Edited August 14, 2018 by TalismanRing