Telecast decisions prove Oscar disdain for cinematic craft

Ah, yes, Academy Award nomination season- the time of year that every movie enthusiast looks forward to, right up until the moment that the nominations are actually announced. That’s when anticipation swiftly morphs to condemnation with complaining about pandering, snubs, and the fact that Disney has almost guaranteed a win in the Animation categories every year.

Yes, indeed, no less than three of the five films nominated for Best Animated Feature Film are Disney properties, with Encanto, Raya and the Last Dragon, and Luca, with Luca being the only Pixar release from this Oscar season. Encanto seems to be a shoe-in for the win- after all, its gorgeous visuals, cultural representation, heartfelt message, and catchy music come together to form a near-perfect film that not even the Academy could overlook; however, the one film that seems to stand in opposition to Encanto is Sony Pictures Animation’s unexpected masterpiece The Mitchells Versus the Machines. This creatively animated film about a family road trip that ends up in the middle of the AI apocalypse quickly became a fan favorite, regarded as one of Sony’s best animated films, second only to the previously Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. However, it likely won’t beat out Encanto, as its quirky and irreverent style derived from early internet humor is probably too much for the old farts at the Academy to truly appreciate.

Unfortunately for Encanto, it won’t be recognized for its chart-topping song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”  in the Best Original Song category- the genius behind the lyrics, Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton fame, declined to submit the song for consideration. Why, no one knows for sure- perhaps he just didn’t have room for yet another award on his shelf. The song that did get submitted, the tear-jerking “Dos Orugitas” (Two Caterpillars), is certainly not a bad choice either- it’s just not quite as show stopping as the number that beat out “Let it Go” for the most streamed Disney song.

Speaking of bad choices, however, the Oscar’s biggest controversy this year is all of the categories they’ve decided to cut from the televised broadcast. Artists will still be recognized for their awards, of course, although likely with much less fanfare and celebrity guest appearances. The Academy Awards have decided to cut eight of the 23 categories, including Best Documentary Short, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Animated Short, Best Live Action Short, and Best Sound Design. So, no big deal, just every single category that has to do with making a movie that doesn’t have a recognizable celebrity face attached to it. Sarcasm aside, cutting out this many categories is almost unheard of in the history of the Academy Awards. What should be a celebration of the movies and the work that goes into them has become nothing but a celebrity meet-up, where the rich and famous get to admire the richer and more famous receiving golden monogrammed paperweights, and the greater public gets to watch with glee as they point out all of the famous faces they can spot in the crowd. 

The fact that these specific categories are being cut speaks loudly to the Academy’s bias- all of these categories have to do with the unsung heroes of film, those that work behind the scenes, or those types of films which are often less for purely entertainment and more to educate, inspire, or experiment with film in more artful ways. The fact that the public does not get to see these awards be recognized is frankly insulting to the industry, especially after so much has been done over the past year to fight to get film professionals living wages and workable hours.

Perhaps to distract from this appalling mistake, this year, the Oscars have introduced two new categories called the Oscars Cheer Moment and the Oscars Fan Favorite, both decided by voters on Twitter. It’s unclear whether these will become recurring categories, but they seem to have been created in response to the push in the last few years to introduce a new “Best Popular Film” category. Of course, internet trolls jumped on these almost immediately, and seemed to think it would be amusing if the film that won the Fan Favorite was a movie that was universally hated- Like the Amazon Prime original, Cinderella, which was a certified musical dumpster fire. Either that, or Amazon has been buying votes, which, given their history of using bots on Twitter to boost their company’s image, seems likely.

The Cheer Moment, on the other hand, seems untainted by trolls or bots, although in a strange choice, was made open to all movies, not just ones from the past Oscar season. Attempting to decide the greatest movement in movie history is an incredibly tall order and seems like any result would only cause mass disappointment. 

It certainly seems like a tough choice to make- between the iconic scene of Neo dodging bullets in The Matrix, the long-awaited cry of “Avengers assemble!” from Avengers: Endgame and the more recent team-up of all 3 Spidermen from Spider-Man: No Way Home, plus some less obvious choices like the song “And I’m Telling You” from Dreamgirls, and the Flash’s “speed force” moment from Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Of course, whenever the MCU gets recognition, DC fans all have to scramble to find something to compete against them with. 

Best Picture nominations this year are Belfast, Coda, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Richard, Liquorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog, and West Side Story. Dune is a surprise pick, as many thought it would be too much of a blockbuster-y film for the Academy to pay it any mind, but there’s one film that stands out from all the others, and not in a good way. Perhaps best highlighted by this Rotten Tomatoes infographic, Don’t Look Up is the only film to be nominated that was widely received negatively by audiences. It seems only to have been nominated for its message, which was about as subtle as the punch that the movie’s Hollywood star-power packed. Don’t Look Up took up a spot that could’ve gone to one of several snubbed films of far superior quality. Perhaps the one most egregiously left out of the Best Picture lineup is Tick Tick Boom!, the adaptation of the Broadway musical about the life of Rent composer Johnathan Larsen. If the poignancy of a film’s message could get it nominated alone, then Tick Tick Boom! more than deserved to be nominated. But alas, not the case. Hopefully Andrew Garfield will at least win for actor in a leading role.

It seems that the Oscars came so close to getting things right this year for a change, and yet were held back by stupid decisions and prioritizing star power over cinema, forgetting that what makes the Oscars great is not the names on the guest list- It’s the movies and the people that make them.

By Bailey Staerkel

March 18 2022

Volume 118 Issue VI