Should Voice Acting Get Oscar Nominations?

[cannastop]

I had this discussion on the BOT telegram.

I noticed that someone said Scarlett Johansson should have gotten an Oscar nomination for Her, where only Johansson's voice is in the movie.

 

Someone in the chat agreed with it, and I pointed out that if that is so, then the actors in animated features should also be considered for Oscars.

He agreed with that too, and he listed some of his favorite voice performances. My own favorite performances in animated movies are in Zootopia and Turning Red. Also Akira has great voice acting, but that's a Japanese movie.

 

Now, there is an issue here, in that the acting usually done in animated movies of any kind, whether big budget or independent, is not the style that Oscar voters reward. And animation is looked down upon. Andy Serkis, whose body is used in his performances, and is animated over, is derided.

 

I don't necessarily think there should be a category for voice performances at the Oscars, but I think some consideration is due.

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

On 6/30/2022 at 6:27 PM, cannastop said:

I had this discussion on the BOT telegram.

I noticed that someone said Scarlett Johansson should have gotten an Oscar nomination for Her, where only Johansson's voice is in the movie.

 

Someone in the chat agreed with it, and I pointed out that if that is so, then the actors in animated features should also be considered for Oscars.

He agreed with that too, and he listed some of his favorite voice performances. My own favorite performances in animated movies are in Zootopia and Turning Red. Also Akira has great voice acting, but that's a Japanese movie.

 

Now, there is an issue here, in that the acting usually done in animated movies of any kind, whether big budget or independent, is not the style that Oscar voters reward. And animation is looked down upon. Andy Serkis, whose body is used in his performances, and is animated over, is derided.

 

I don't necessarily think there should be a category for voice performances at the Oscars, but I think some consideration is due.

I think a Vocal/Motion Capture Performance category would be a good addition to the Oscars. In some ways those roles can be more challenging, because they often have to pull off those emotional scenes alone in a recording booth or in a mocap suit vs acting across from other actors on a set. Also, some of the most memorable voice/mocap roles are from fantasy/sci-fi movies or comedic in nature, another disadvantage in an Oscar race, as wearing prosthetics and disappearing into a biopic role tends to be viewed as the height of acting.

 

Is live-action acting (for lack of a better phrase) better than voice acting, or just different? There are different Oscars for Original vs Adapted Screenplay and the concept isn't remotely controversial. If there'd been a separate Academy Award for voice/mocap acting years ago, then Gollum, Genie from Aladdin and Rocket Raccoon would likely be Oscar winning roles and that would be kind of cool. OTOH any Oscar category added now would be viewed as lesser, fairly or not.

[vale9001]

There isn't that much of competition, Winning an Oscar is important because of that. You won best cinematography upon 1500 films released in a year. A Vocal/Motion Capture Performance category would be a fight between 20 movies in a year. 

[interiorgatordecorator]

has there ever been a push/campaign to have someone nominated for a voice acting performance in one of the 4 acting categories?

[cannastop]

7 minutes ago, interiorgatordecorator said:

has there ever been a push/campaign to have someone nominated for a voice acting performance in one of the 4 acting categories?

don't think so.

Maybe some buzz about Andy Serkis.

But as far as a mainstream animated feature? Nope.

 

Even Coco's FYC from 2017 had everything except acting.

 

[cannastop]

just found out the Emmys have a Character Voice-Over Performance category.