91st Academy Awards - Discussion thread - RACISM IS OVER, THANKS GREEN BOOK

[The Futurist]

One year from now.

Where were you when Villeneuve took best director over Nolan and Cameron ?

[Valonqar]

there's no way ratings go up, lol. oscar ratings can only go down no matter what they do. as the matter of fact, all awards shows. old fashioned entertainment.

[filmlover]

Netflix ended up doing not so bad this year. 3 wins including Best Director. We'll see how they fare with The Irishman next year - intrigued by what the plan is there since that ad during the show touted "In Theaters This Fall."

Edited February 25, 2019 by filmlover

[MrPink]

11 minutes ago, Valonqar said:

there's no way ratings go up, lol. oscar ratings can only go down no matter what they do. as the matter of fact, all awards shows. old fashioned entertainment.

 

In general though, the ratings for awards shows are steadying out this year compared to previous. With all the controversy that's happened keeping Oscars in the conversation, it's possible that the drop is extremely minimal

[MCKillswitch123]

45 minutes ago, Valonqar said:

It isn't Netflix boycott or whatever that sunk it but a) there's a category for foreign language movie

There's quite a lot of bullshit in your post - like i.e. presuming that Roma didn't win because people were bored with it.... talk about speaking for yourself, mate. That's YOUR opinion. If people were universally bored with it, it wouldn't have been nominated for Best Picture, especially as a Netflix film, AND it's not "the people" who voted for it, it's the Academy voters who do so and these are people who have a (let's call it) more complete understanding of film than the typical GA member who would find something like Roma dull and something like Green Book a crowdpleaser. [For the record, the only movies I saw in the Best Picture were Black Panther, Roma, The Favorite and BlacKkKlansman, although Green Book's plot was spoiled for me regardless. No, I didn't see A Star Is Born.]

 

However, the one that stuck out was this one: to say that Roma didn't win because there was already a category for Foreign Language Film. If a foreign language film can be nominated for awards outside of Foreign Language Film, then why the fuck can't it win Best Picture either? It's like when animated movies get relegated to Best Animated Feature only, despite a few of them deserving noms outside of that, including even Best Picture. There shouldn't even be a Best Animated Feature category, nor there should be a Best Foreign Language Film category. They are films just like any other Hollywood film. This isn't like documentaries which, while a movie genre themselves too, are so far apart from traditional fiction filmmaking that it makes sense to keep them separate [although some of them deserve non-doc noms as well, like Free Solo for Best Cinematography, or (maybe even) one of the big ones from last year, such as a Won't You Be My Neighbor? or Three Identical Strangers, for Best Picture]. The Oscars are a set of Hollywood awards, but if you're gonna reward films made outside of Hollywood, then you better reward those films properly and not denying deserved recognition to a foreign language film because it's a fucking foreign language film.

 

The hilarity to say something like that and then support the rewarding of a film like Green Book with Best Picture - a film where "we are learning to overcome our white guy inner demons and to realize that acceptance of other cultures isn't wrong" - is quite big. I mean, is it a well-intentioned movie? Sure. But it's still one hell of a laugh when you pitch the idea of a film made to lecture white guys that the times we used to be racist are gone - they're not - and we "can accept" black people just fine, as if black people were EVER the problem when it comes to racism and not the racists themselves to begin with. It's okay to think that you can lecture racists not to be racist and that we have come a long way from racist times, but it's not okay to think that lecturing racists not to be racist ends the problem and should make you feel good about yourselves, because you're not even accounting for the actual forgiveness of the people you were racist towards..... you know, the victims of years and years of purging and discrimination. Worth reiterating that I'm not commenting on Green Book's quality as a film because, socio-political messaging aside, it might be a decently made film with great performances.... as I already mentioned, I only read the plot (a friend spoiled me the ending by accident and I was just like "fuck it".

 

TL;DR: if Roma didn't win, it should be for the simple reason that it was collectively voted as an inferior film to GB, which comes down to personal opinions and nothing more. And it's fine if you liked GB better than Roma. But it's not because "it was boring as fuck", otherwise it wouldn't have been nominated for Best Picture to begin with, and I hope to God that the Academy wasn't so petty as to not giving it the award because there's already a foreign language category that shouldn't even exist.

 

PS: no, it's hard to not to gauge Netflix as an influencer in this situation either, because it must pain the fuck out of Hollywood to reward a film like that. Green Book wasn't even nominated for Best Director, for fuck's sake, and then it wins Picture? Bah. The Favorite should've been the winner anyway, so....... I popped hardcore for Olivia Colman, even if I felt bad for Glenn.

Edited February 25, 2019 by MCKillswitch123

[Valonqar]

12 minutes ago, filmlover said:

Netflix ended up doing not so bad this year. 3 wins including Best Director. We'll see how they fare with The Irishman next year - intrigued by what the plan is there since that ad during the show touted "In Theaters This Fall."

if Irishman isn't a bore, they should do fine. I still think that Roma loss is less to do with netflix and more to do with boredom and having a designated foreign category. 

 

@MrPink Ah, OK. It's gonna be interesting to see. I do like No Host and hope they keep it. 

 

@MCKillswitch123 I don't care about GB which I didn't see. I just comment on the fact that it was well loved since it won despite strained efforts to take it down. I don't think that takedowns work since I never saw a proof that they do. What happens is lining up between general disinterest/dislike and boycotters goals, but not that boycott or review-bombing or smear actually have an effect. The movie fails because of disinterest/dislike on the part o majority and, likewise, if majority likes it shitting on it by minority won't have effect. 

 

as for Roma, Foreign Category most likely does hurt cause voters feel that the movie is rewarded already, and being boring always hurts. And I read numerous complaints that it was boring and nothing ever happened. So go ahead, believe that it's netflix hate even though for so much hate they actually gave it Director and Foreign. Something doesn't compute. if you don't want to endorse a streaming studio than you snub its movie altogether. There's no logic in "mauahahaha, we are gonna put it in place by giving it 10 noms and 2 major wins but withholding Picture win". No logic at all. We won't agree so I'm dropping further discussion.

 

 

Edited February 25, 2019 by Valonqar

[filmlover]

1 minute ago, Valonqar said:

if Irishman isn't a bore, they should do fine. I still think that Roma loss is less to do with netflix and more to do with boredom and having a designated foreign category. 

[titanic2187]

Oscar Ratings Rise Over All-Time Low Of 2018 With Hostless ABC Show

https://deadline.com/2019/02/2019-oscars-ratings-rise-spike-lee-protest-green-book-abc-1202564523/

[CoolioD1]

20 minutes ago, Valonqar said:

there's no way ratings go up, lol. oscar ratings can only go down no matter what they do. as the matter of fact, all awards shows. old fashioned entertainment.

 

[Hatebox]

Dat Roma effect...

[Alli]

I'm not against a host. I'm against cringe worthy skits. I die of embarrassment

[Valonqar]

Oh wow! No Host worked! or maybe people tuned in to see if BP and Freddie Mercury win? 

 

[filmlover]

Just now, Alli said:

I'm not against a host. I'm against cringe worthy skits. I die of embarrassment

Those tend to go hand in hand.

[The Futurist]

Hoping next year is full of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Google, Facebook, places where real art strives.

Edited February 25, 2019 by The Futurist

[filmlover]

lmao Rami had a JLaw moment and fell off the stage after he won.

 

[Alli]

4 minutes ago, The Futurist said:

Hoping next year if full of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Google, Facebook, places where real art strives.

I wonder if these can survive in the long run showing only movies. NO sports, news, other type of shows.  HBO seems to be doing pretty good, but they have the newest movies. we shall see.

[Valonqar]

14 minutes ago, The Futurist said:

Hoping next year if full of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Google, Facebook, places where real art strives.

it's gonna happen. Netflix and Amazon have serious contender line up at least it looks so this early. 

[titanic2187]

Oscar duration and rating since BP expansion.

2010- 3h37min ; 41.3m (The hurt locker)

2011- 3h16min ; 37.9m (The king speech)

2012- 3h13min; 39.5m(The artist)

2013- 3h35min; 40.4m(Argo)

2014- 3h34min; 43.8m(12 years a slave)

2015- 3h43min; 37.3m(Birdman)

2016- 3h37min; 34,4m(Spotlight)

2017- 3h49min; 32.9m(Moonlight)

2018- 3h53min; 26.5m(The shape of water)

2019- 3h22min; (Green Book)

 

Oscar this year certainly are shorter but aren't that short after all but 2011 and 2012 had a shorter duration even with a host. Wonder how they did that back then.

 

[Goffe]

Bohemian Rhapsody the Biggest Winner of the Night sounds so good. Makes me all 

 

Almost makes up for LLL not winning in 2016.

Edited February 25, 2019 by Goffe

[Lucas]

17 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

Oscar duration and rating since BP expansion.

2010- 3h37min ; 41.3m (The hurt locker)

2011- 3h16min ; 37.9m (The king speech)

2012- 3h13min; 39.5m(The artist)

2013- 3h35min; 40.4m(Argo)

2014- 3h34min; 43.8m(12 years a slave)

2015- 3h43min; 37.3m(Birdman)

2016- 3h37min; 34,4m(Spotlight)

2017- 3h49min; 32.9m(Moonlight)

2018- 3h53min; 26.5m(The shape of water)

2019- 3h22min; (Green Book)

 

Oscar this year certainly are shorter but aren't that short after all but 2011 and 2012 had a shorter duration even with a host. Wonder how they did that back then.

 

Did I miss it or have they told us how many watched last night?