The Academy Awards

For what it's (not) worth, I loved Black Panther.

I'm not a super hero fan, and I couldn't tell a DC character from a Marvel character if my life depended on it. But I thought the story was interesting as were the characters, and the actors were terrific.

I agree, I think the story and acting were wonderful, I feel as if I can understand the dislike towards it as it isn't nearly has well done as the many other marvel films it is still good.
 
I remember myself talking about the rigged standards when I just joined this forum and everybody was so quick to attack me on this subject matter. Interesting how 5 months later people are whining about the pool of nominees. As directoric mentioned there just can’t be any awards for the best film as it is impossible to choose from all the movies through out the year and with all sorts of different genres. But still, it hurts to see the most prestigious film award of the world often (not all the time) failing to even recognize what a good movie is. there is nothing wrong with finance and publicity but people, specially professionals in this industry, should stop giving so much credit to this academy awards. In my opinion, there should be a difference between publicity and quality. Not all the time publicity equals quality.
 
Last edited:
I'm not saying black panther is a bad movie. Acting was all top notch.
I'm saying it's by no means the best movie of the year.
 
It's entertainment. A yearly TV show. A comedy really, when you consider the host and some of the results. I don't watch any of these shows. I do enjoy seeing underdogs get their props. And those deserving. Otherwise I could care less about the Hollywood elite gushing over each other and acting humble. It is what is is. A TV show about movie stars.
 
The Academy Award is no different than any sport. It's fixed. I knew that for years now.

There are always snubs & surprises & some biases in the Academy Award but I wouldn't go that far to say it's fixed.

None of the award ceremony is going to satisfy everyone. When compared to previous Oscar winning films like The Godfather or The Best Years of Our Lives or Casablanca, Bohemian Rhapsody or A star is born is not even half close. I would say the quality of films have come down that even films like Black Panther gets Best Picture nomination. I liked Black Panther to some extent but putting it in the same level as other Oscar winning films might be a joke.

It's not the Academy, but the overall quality of films have gone down (Foreign films may be exemption). Academy is always Academy, not perfect but fairly decent.
 
It's not the Academy, but the overall quality of films have gone down (Foreign films may be exemption). Academy is always Academy, not perfect but fairly decent.

I call BS. Bad films have always been made. Every era. Real bombs. And real good films. Just like today. In fact a lot of the older classics don't hold up. Chalking it up to "the times" is simply ignorant.
 
I call BS. Bad films have always been made. Every era. Real bombs. And real good films. Just like today. In fact a lot of the older classics don't hold up. Chalking it up to "the times" is simply ignorant.

True, bad films have always been made. But it is hard to see films with extra-ordinary calibers like The Godfather, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, The Sound of Music these days.
 
True, bad films have always been made. But it is hard to see films with extra-ordinary calibers like The Godfather, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, The Sound of Music these days.

I disagree, There are still many extremely fantastic films like the ones you listed, Hollywood studios will more then likely put more money into large franchise films as they are more guaranteed to have a return on investment. The entire system of what movies are nominated and what movies win is completely political and not based on what film is better at all.
saying it isn't the the state of Hollywood and the academy but the fact that movies just aren't as good as the old days is just a cop out.
 
I disagree, There are still many extremely fantastic films like the ones you listed, Hollywood studios will more then likely put more money into large franchise films as they are more guaranteed to have a return on investment. The entire system of what movies are nominated and what movies win is completely political and not based on what film is better at all.
saying it isn't the the state of Hollywood and the academy but the fact that movies just aren't as good as the old days is just a cop out.

Instead of just saying, films with those calibers exist today, can you name just 2 or 3 films for each year - 2016, 2017 & 2018?

Again, I agree that to some extent awards may be political but not completely as you say. Last year, not just Oscar, most critics chose Gary Oldman as Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Frances McDormand for Best Actress, Coco as Best Animated Feature, Call Me by Your Name as Best Adapted Screenplay, Blade Runner 2049 for Best Cinematography and also in few other categories. If you think Oscar is completely political and these people or movies shouldn't have won, then can you name who should have won in these categories?
 
Again, I agree that to some extent awards may be political
Well that’s the whole point, the most prestigious film award should not be at all mixed with any sorts of politics. You can’t mix politics with any form of art and expect to get a good result.
 
people dont become members of the academy due to any sort of mentality as a criteria.
whether or not you are impartial in your judgement of a great film is irrelevant.

and its members of the academy that vote in the academy awards.
 
people dont become members of the academy due to any sort of mentality as a criteria.
whether or not you are impartial in your judgement of a great film is irrelevant.

and its members of the academy that vote in the academy awards.
Still, based on the rewards each year, it seems academy awards is thematically biased towards drama. This mentality should be somehow inhabited by the judges. Otherwise how do u explain the scarsity of some genres like crime or horror each year? Though I admit most of the horror movies these days are crap, we have kickass movies in this genre too ( suspiria, raw,witch..).
 
Last edited:
In this imperfect world, nothing is going to be perfect.
Yes, but you at least expect the most famous film award to be closer to solving this problem than any other film award in the world which obviously isnt the case. At this point cannes is a lot more credible in my opinion.
 
Last edited:
Instead of just saying, films with those calibers exist today, can you name just 2 or 3 films for each year - 2016, 2017 & 2018?

It's kind of hard to list the the best movies from a certain year and have everyone agree that they are on the same
level as cult classics and expecting there to be a ground breaking movie every single year is a little far fetched for me.
but in my opinion the best for those years
2016
Sully, The Nice Guys, Hacksaw Ridge, Manchester by the sea. (slower year in my opinion)
2017
The greatest showmen, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Baby Driver, Logan, Dunkirk, and many more
2018
A Quiet place, Annihilation, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, First man, Spiderman into the spiderverse, Vice, Blackkklansman.

I'm not saying that the best films don't make it to the oscars, because they normally have a lot of good ones nominated.


people dont become members of the academy due to any sort of mentality as a criteria.
whether or not you are impartial in your judgement of a great film is irrelevant.

and its members of the academy that vote in the academy awards.

Exactly as sfoster stated. it isn't a vote of the general audience watching the films, its a selected group of individuals who decide what the best picture of that year was. it's all political, its all people who have their own agenda. its not 100% about the quality of the picture like it should be.
 
I loved Roma, I'll be frankly v disappointed if it doesn't win. Can you imagine if his real life maid shows up at the oscars?! Oscar sentimentality at its very best is within our grasp!
 
First post here!

I think the Oscars and most awards shows have a political element - how could they not? Art is inherently political and so are those who participate in the various industries and sectors connected to it. There is also visibility - and I think most would agree that the more famous or well-known a film is there would be a lobby geared towards promoting it for consideration.

I thought that Black Panther was a mediocre film, taken on its own merit: the script was weak, and while there were some aspects of the film that were nicely visualized, the generally poor cgi, paint by numbers approach to the plot, plus thematic issues I had with the story left me with the same realization I had when I saw Wonder Woman - some people are going to embrace this film and make it a thing because of its "perceived" advancement of minorities and some idea that the film is a good example of "representation" - neither case holds water.

Since I hated the Last Jedi though, I hoped Black Panther would make a lot of bank - and it did.

Into the Spiderverse - superior to Black Panther in every way.

I wasn't a fan of BlacKkKlansman - it was well made and moderately enjoyable but, I was bored at points.

The Favorite - loved it.

Suspiria - surprised it wasn't nominated. Same with Won't You Be My Neighbor - which beats the brakes off of Black Panther and Vice, which I wasn't too interested in.

A Star is Born - how many times can a film be remade? Bohemian Rhapsody - not a whole lot of innovation. However, I was happy these films got made.

Still trying to catch up with the ones I haven't seen yet.

I can agree Cannes, Venice, Berlin - their juries and audiences respond differently to films, and I've seen a wider variety of films following their awards than the Oscars.
 
Yes, but you at least expect the most famous film award to be closer to solving this problem than any other film award in the world which obviously isnt the case.
Why do you expect the Academy to solve this problem?

Film is subjective. Put the two of us in a room and we may find ten
movies released in 2018 that we both agree on. Add sfoster and
peacemaker and the four of us would find it difficult to find five
movies we all think worthy of being the best. Now put around 6,000
people in a room.

I don't think there is a problem that needs to be solved. The Oscar
is a popularity award with a strong aspect of self congratulation and
showing how "important" the people who make films are. And each
year they do exactly that - they nominate movies they think are
important or ones made by people they like. Then never nominate
"the best" because there is no such thing.
 
Back
Top