How Seriously Should We Continue to Take the Oscars?

            The Academy Awards, otherwise known as the Oscars, are some of the highest honors for technical and artistic merit in the film industry. They are an opportunity for international recognition of distinction in cinematic achievements. Despite its 90 years of existence, however, their merits have often come into question. One begins to wonder just how seriously we should continue to take the Oscars.

            Recently, actress Carey Mulligan said, “Maybe you shouldn’t be allowed to vote unless you can prove you’ve seen every single one. There should be a test.” She makes this argument because she, like most viewers, believes all of these movies deserve an equal chance to prove why they were nominated in the first place and why they deserve to win. They all have their own merits that make them unique and commendable. One can't fairly decide which film is the most deserving if they chose to simply not watch what was nominated in the categories. It’s not an outlandish request to make, either. Some of the Academy members don’t actually try to bridge the gap between themselves and the film in order to truly appreciate the subject. One anonymous voter, when asked about Get Out, told Scott Feinberg:

I eliminated Get Out… what bothered me afterwards was that instead of focusing on the fact that this was an entertaining little horror movie… they started trying to suggest it had deeper meaning than it does, and… they played the race card, and that really turned me off… at one of the luncheons, the lead actor… was giving us a lecture on racism… and how black lives matter, and I thought, ‘What does this have to do with Get Out?’

This statement is grossly disrespectful to fans of the film and voters who could actually comprehend the film. This anonymous voter should have simply just admitted that they didn’t want to understand Get Out, because those who did, know that the film has everything to do with racism and Black Lives Matter; the literal plot of the movie is about upper class white people stealing and inserting themselves into kidnapped Black bodies.

            That anonymous Academy member isn’t the only one who doesn’t actually care about the films their supposed to vote on. One of the voters in regards to animated films said, “I only watch the ones that my kid wants to see.” Another voter admitted that they didn’t watch 12 Years a Slave because the topic made them uncomfortable. This is the disrespect filmmakers must put up with when campaigning for their respective films. Their hard work and efforts get ignored, pushed aside, and forgotten due to the Academy members’ fragile sensitivity and egos that they refuse to put aside for even two seconds.

            One can’t possibly accurately determine the “best” films of the year if they refuse to critically engage with them or even watch them. Director Emerald Fennell told Ramin Setoodeh, “They prioritize things they are comfortable with… they’ll go with the established filmmakers.” This belief isn’t even unfounded. The Best Director category was filled with familiar names, all of who deserve to be there no doubt, but are still the same few names being shuffled around. Directors like Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese have the privilege of name recognition, whereas other equally talented directors are ignored because they lack the star power that takes years to cultivate.

            One cannot truly engage with the Oscars when they have openly admitted time and time again that they cherry pick what films they chose to watch. The Academy has a lot of nerve expecting fans of film to respect their choices when they don’t respect artists. With their past behavior, it isn’t hard to feel skeptical of their authority. In all honestly, the Oscars aren’t the end-all be-all of recognition in film and shouldn’t be taken as seriously as they have been.

Sources

Amidi, Amid. “Proof That Oscar Voters Are Clueless About Animation.” Cartoon Brew, 22 February 2015, https://www.cartoonbrew.com/award-season-focus/proof-that-oscar-voters-are-clueless-about-animation-109456.html.

Feinberg, Scott. “Brutally Honest Oscar Ballot #2: Get Out Filmmakers ‘Played the Race Card,’ ‘Just Sick of Meryl Streep.’” The Hollywood Reporter, 2 March 2018, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/brutally-honest-oscar-ballot-get-filmmakers-played-race-card-just-sick-meryl-streep-1090440/item/best-picture-2018-brutally-honest-oscar-ballot-2-1090446.

Rosen, Christopher. “Do Academy Voters Actually Watch Every Potential Oscar Contender?” Vanity Fair, 27 January 2020, https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/01/oscars-stephen-king-carey-mulligan-watch-the-movies.

Setoodeh, Ramin. “Carey Mulligan Suggests Oscar Voters Need to Prove They’ve Seen the Movies.” Variety, 25 January 2020, https://variety.com/2020/film/news/carey-mulligan-oscars-promising-young-woman-hustlers-little-women-farewell-1203480280/.