30 Minutes to Write: Best Popular Picture

10 years since The Dark Knight was “snubbed” for best picture, The Academy has announced it’s the latest step in trying to keep up to date with the success of Hollywood’s most prolific films. It has been announced that the academy will be introducing a new category this year for ‘Best Popular Film’. This has raised several flags for most people. “Black Panther isn’t going to be nominated for Best Picture then”, “shouldn’t stunt work or casting be awarded over this?”, and just plain “why”?

Isn’t casting just a director looking at audition tapes or writing a role with someone in mind? Well no, Jimmy. It’s much more. In a film with a large cast, someone is assigned the role of picking actors for the right role. It’s often a daunting task picking the right actor for a lead role, mainly because you need to choose someone financially viable. This isn’t the case in the other roles so you need to find the right actors to help bring dimensions to the supporting characters. The most notable film of the last 10 years that undoubtedly win this award would be Moonlight. Casting the same three-dimensional characters three times, at different points in their lives was no easy task but it’s the reason the film works. The same goes for stunt work. No one can imagine the thrills of Mad Max: Fury Road without the elaborate stunt work of the stunt team. All of which was completed with absolute safety in mind. But we’re gonna award big films because they’re not good enough to compete for best picture. Might as well call it Mediocre Picture or Mixed Reception Picture.

For the 2019 ceremony if Black Panther received any above the line nominations (picture, directing, writing, acting) it would be ignoring the movies that actually deserve to get there. Like other Marvel films, a nomination in VFX or sound would be understandable. In the case of Black Panther the only categories that it should get nominated it would be costumes and for Rachel Morrison’s eclectic (on a Marvel scale) cinematography. Lots of people may have seen Black Panther and it would’ve captured the imagination of a fair few people. But, did it really emotionally captivate people like Moonlight, Schindler’s List or Lawrence of Arabia. Did Black Panther give us thrills like No Country for Old Men, The Godfather or The Deer Hunter?

The Oscars are little more than a part that Hollywood throws every year that honours their own great work. It’s inherently going to reflect the choices made by the industry. Little diversity in casting? Then no black actors to get nominations then. No female directors? No female directing nominees then. Hollywood has the opportunity to give black actors starring roles and female directors directing gigs. Last year the Academy nominated Get Out and Lady Bird for best picture, actor/actress, director and screenplay when most other major awards (The Golden Globes and BAFTAs) left them out.

How about horror movies that only offer jump scares? No horror nominees then. Their genre bias isn’t there 90% of the time. The genre bias doesn’t stem from members not liking fantasy, sci-fi or horror films. It’s because most of the films that in this genre just plain suck. Hollywood made a great horror film last year and guess what it? It got nominated for Best Picture, Director, Actor, and won for its screenplay. The same happened in 1973 with The Exorcist. Or in 2009 with The Hurt Locker.

The Academy has also announced its intention to shorten the telecast to about three hours by cutting out some of the technical categories. It's obvious this decision and the one with the new category are intended to get more people to watch. It seems ABC have pressured them into doing this. This puts The Academy in limbo. They want to hold on to their tradition by awarding the best films but the best aren't household names anymore. The most watched ceremony was the one celebrating the films of 1997. Guess what film came out that year? Yep, that's right, Titanic. That year had almost 10 million more than the next which was Forrest Gump's year. If Hollywood want to keep having this party every year they need to start making it worth the time of the masses and earning it.

In 2008 the AFI compiled a list of 100 best American movies. There isn’t one directed by a woman. Is this AFI’s fault? Not at all because they necessary weren’t the ones denying the voters the chance for women to direct films. It was the studios. In the same list, there are many, many box office successes. Will any of today’s box office hits have the same impact? Well, I haven’t noticed one yet. Simply put if you want the Oscars to honour more films made by Women and modern blockbusters you just need to give the Academy the opportunity/reason to. The Academy is NOT the solution but merely a representative who can only encourage.

What are your thoughts on this?