The problem with the Oscars is everyone has an opinion, yet no one is surprised when they announce the winners. Oscar ratings have been steadily dwindling every year. People are losing interest in the value of such an awards ceremony where it's created its own market for film so that "serious" movies are geared towards winning an Oscar nomination.
The year 2010 has been a shake-up of sorts to correct that narrow Oscar-tunneled vision focus by opening up the nominations to include ten movies instead of five. This allowed for unconventional but well-received films like "District 9" and "A Serious Man" to be nominated and have a fighting chance of winning.
However, when the nominations opened up so much, everyone was left wondering the same thing: does a nomination even matter if as many as ten films can contend for best picture? Are there even ten films worthy of being nominated? Therein lies the catch-22 with the Oscars. They open up the nominations to expand their view of potential winners, but at the risk of diminishing their value in the public eye as valid judges of film by being too loose.
The Oscars have the difficult task of juggling two images. One on hand, they should stand for some sort of artistic legitimacy as a mark of excellence characterized by authority and therefore a superior opinion on the subject of film from the perspective of true filmmaking skill irrespective of public opinion. On the other hand, they need to be in line with the general public opinion or risk losing said legitimacy by being seen as pandering to specific genres and styles of filmmaking.
Last year, "Avatar" was by far the highest grossing and most popular film. It was recognized by the Oscars by winning all kinds of nominations across the board of categories. However, "The Hurt Locker," a successful but far less popular film, took the winning spot for best picture and best screenplay. Taking the less popular opinion does in some way legitimize the film from an artistic perspective because it creates a realm of sophistication around the film that the masses seemingly cannot appreciate. This is beginning to unravel for the Oscars as film critics are slowly coming around to appreciating more popular sci-fi and genre films that are seen as simultaneously entertaining and artistic. If the Oscars fail to embrace this fact, they risk losing any value in the public eye beyond signifying the opinions of snobs that have a bias to works with more "serious" subject matter.
The Oscars in 2011 have a tough task ahead of them: standing for and representing sophisticated artistry in filmmaking while maintaining legitimacy in the eyes of the general public. How do they balance the two? It's simple: choose the best film irrespective of its genre and subject matter. This is still different from choosing the most popular film, as box office numbers do not directly translate to superiority in filmmaking. But there is a correlation and the academy of motion pictures arts and sciences would do well to figure out just what it is. This controversy is just one of the reasons that the Oscars stand out as the premiere awards ceremony in the United States. Private industries nationwide have taken a cue from the Oscars, presenting corporate and crystal awards to their respective top performers
The author of this article is 10 year veteran in the crystal awards and recognition gifts industry.
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