Oscars lack quality choices for best picture
Saturday, July 10, 2010 at 2:12PM By Jessica Pickens
Student thinks films not high quality for award
This year, the Academy Awards will be a little different. Ten films will be nominated for best picture rather than the usual five.
Some think this is a radical idea and are outraged at the Academy of Motion Pictures for doing what the LA Times calls an “uncharacteristically bold change.”
Other news sources, such as The Week magazine, list the top 10 reasons why the Academy should not expand the best picture nominations to 10 movies.
“The Academy might as well have expanded the category to 50 films, or 4,423 films or simply everything that has ever been released in the civilized world,” said film critic for the New Statesman Ryan Gilbey.
However, the expansion of nominations is nothing new. From 1929, when the Oscar ceremonies first began, to 1944, the number of best picture nominations fluctuated annually. Between three and 12 films were nominated each year.
After 1945, best picture nominations were kept at a static five.
I don’t think increasing the number of best picture nominations is a problem. What I do have an issue with is figuring out what on earth they nominate?
Unlike years past where every film nominated deserved the award, this year’s crop of titles falls woefully short.
At the 1936 Academy Awards celebration, a year with 12 movies nominated, 1935 film “Mutiny on the Bounty” won best picture.
Other films up for an award were classics like “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “The Informer” and “Les Miserables.”
These classic films are examples of deserving Oscar winners; nothing of this calibre has been made in more than 50 years.
Movie studios in the 1930s and 1940s produced a plethora of movies every year.
Shirley Temple alone put out five movies in 1934. Today’s actors generally don’t seem to have more than one movie every one or two years.
Not only were studios producing a higher volume of films per year, but the quality of the movies was substantially better than what is playing in theaters today.
Sixty years ago, movies had compelling story lines that were performed by convincing actors and actresses. Directors had skillful camera work and lighting to create the appropriate mood for the film, instead of relying on computerized special effects.
Movies today, however, focus on overused crude humor, sex scenes and an overabundance of violence.
Gone are the days of getting an audience emotionally connected to a story or creating on-screen drama through a well-written screenplay.
Modern movies are no longer films but instead disposable commodities; we watch them once, are supersaturated with visual effects, violence and sex and then we forget them.
Subsequently, in addition to nominating five mediocre films, the Academy has decided to scrape the bottom of the barrel in order to come up with another five awful movies for their 10 nominated films.
It’s a decision that seems pointless considering the low quality level of all the movies.
My problem with the 10 best picture nominations is simple: I don’t think Hollywood produces a high enough volume of movies, let alone quality films, to be able to come away with 10 nominations that all deserve an Oscar at the same time.
