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posted by martyb on Thursday August 09 2018, @06:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the shark-jumping-awards dept.

Academy Adds Popular Film Oscar Category in Desperate Ratings Move

At the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors meeting on Tuesday night, the 54 governors voted to add a new category to the Oscars. Per tradition, some 7,000 Academy voters, experts in their field, voted in by their colleagues, will weigh in on the best films of the year in 24 categories covering the crafts of moviemaking, from cinematography to sound, as well as the four acting categories, directing, writing, animation, foreign language, documentary, and fiction shorts and features.

But this year there will be one more: Best Popular Film. The Academy is bowing to pressure from ABC, which is anxious about historic low ratings for its telecast. The next Oscars will air on February 24, 2019 and, in 2020, will move up from February 23 to February 9, the earliest date ever, in a bid to jump ahead of multiple rival awards shows–which will, in turn, move ahead of the Oscars. (In the early days of its history, the Oscars were held in May, moved to April and March, then February.)

The Board also finally succumbed to building pressure to keep the show to three hours and not present live some of the less sexy craft categories, following the lead of other awards shows like the Tonys. (Sexy categories like Sound Mixing and Editing will be presented live during commercial breaks, then edited into the show.) This also serves to undermine the integrity of these annual global awards, which may be losing relevance as a mainstream shared event, but are still revered by cinephiles around the world.

Also at Vanity Fair, Vulture, Slate, Variety, and Collider.

See also: Oscars Slammed by Film Journalists for Creating 'Best Popular Film' Category, Especially in the Year of 'Black Panther'


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  • (Score: 2) by termigator on Friday August 10 2018, @05:17AM

    by termigator (4271) on Friday August 10 2018, @05:17AM (#719805)

    I basically agree with your comments, but some of your examples are questionable. Hunger Games? Not good. Who still enjoys that movie? Avatar? Although a technical achievement, the story was formulatic. It has no rewatch value. Fury Road? Still have not figured out why so many people liked the film. Now, Wall-E is masterpiece IMO, but the academy has never taken animated films seriously.

    I think a fundamental flaw with award shows is they are too much in the now. It can take time to really know if a movie is good. Movies that did not do well in the theater, find their audience over time and become classics. Movies that were popular and/or well reviewed when released, fade away, do not age well, and/or forgotten. More than once I rewatch and old movie I liked in the past and realize it is not as good as I remembered. I have also appreciated some movies more over time. Time can bring new perspectives and insights in how one judges a movie (or other forms of art).

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