Oscars 2016

I just saw Spotlight, that movie hurt my soul. Just arrrgh...

I also saw The Martian. Not a bad movie by any means, but I'm surprised it got nominated for best picture, It seems more Blockbuster-y than what the academy usually nominates.

Any group who acts like morons ironically will eventually find itself swamped by morons who think themselves to be in good company.

Hey, Ben Hur, Titanic, Return of the King, they are all ultra blockbusters (they all grossed over $1 billion dollars, adjusted for inflation) and they won 11 Oscars, including the Best Picture. Oh sure, Return of the King is most likely as an award for the whole trilogy, but I doubt it would have won if it wasn't Oscar-worthy to some degree.

Say, why don't we change this thread name so it would be about Oscars in general, rather than just one this year?

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Because that's too much attention for people who don't deserve it.

The Oscars matter only in the sense that WWE's Hall Of Fame rings matters. People pay attention, so they are a useful marketing tool. When you get an Oscar Nomination, droves of old ladies who otherwise wouldn't even notice your film will reach in their purses for tickets and or get their DVD players fixed.

And so 'the Academy' has power. If they get less attention, their power will diminish as time goes on and that will be better for everyone in the long run, as they will most likely look to a wider variety of sources more likely to suit a wider variety of values or at least a group that isn't the academy.

@jamespolk: Actually, Rey is the Luke. Poe is the Leia.

Also, just because TFA has a few similarities to ANH and/or follows the formula of the original trilogy doesn't mean it's a bad movie.

@Concerning the Oscars: there's a very great interview with an Academy member from last year about why movies that seemingly should win get snubbed and vice versa.

edited 16th Jan '16 7:00:44 PM by higherbrainpattern

A few similarities?-eyebrow raises-

"You can't change the world without getting your hands dirty."

Do you have a link?, or at least some way to make it easier to search for it?

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

Search for "Brutally Honest Oscar Voter" on Google and it should show up.

"The Golden Globes are better than the Oscars"

They didn't shower nominations on a Batman movie and gave one to Concussion. Also, they are transparent about being a Hollywood body that looks at American works. I wouldn't mind if people stopped watching the Globes too but they seem, if not more honest then at least more obvious and to be consistently more inline with audience sentiment than the Oscars.

> They didn't shower nominations on a Batman movie and gave one to Concussion.

> consistently more inline with audience sentiment than the Oscars.

Look, it's okay if you think Concussion is better than all Batman movies put together, but these statements are mutually exclusive. You can't say with a straight face audiences cared more about Concussion than about The Dark Knight. This isn't a judgement on the quality of either movie, just that Giving a Shitometers around the world for TDK surpassed like 1000 times those of the other movie.

edited 17th Jan '16 12:48:32 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

No, I can't say that with a straight face that audiences cared more about concussion than every Batman movie ever released, but as you said, that's mutually exclusive. There are like, four movies that generated enough Golden Globe controversy for That Other Wiki? This and that wiki both have entire pages dedicated to Oscar Bait.

How many industry figures trash the Foreign Press versus the Academy? How many people have publicly refused Oscars vs Globes?

The point in comparing "The Dark Knight" and Concussion is of one of best actor. People wanted to give it to Ledger for The Joker, that was about as far as it got with the public, yet they instead turned Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale into gods who then failed to fulfill the duties their newly acquired divine offices.

No one's calling the latter a movie that should sweep either, the only word is to consider the guy for best actor. One body has been consistent in answering such calls, the other is the Academy, who seem like teasing people over how smart they are while hiding behind the "just opinion" blanket when called out on it.

edited 17th Jan '16 1:12:14 PM by IndirectActiveTransport

@higherbrainpattern: Thanks!

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

There are like, four movies that generated enough Golden Globe controversy for That Other Wiki? This and that wiki both have entire pages dedicated to Oscar Bait.

I think that, again, this mostly distills to more people caring about the Oscars in general. And once again, that's not to say either award is better or worse than the other, but that, one way or another, more people is passionate enough about the Oscars (especially out of the USA, where the Golden Globes are at best a footnote to make guesses on the Oscars for the average public) to get into any controversies around it.

The Golden Globes are FIFA when it comes to ethics.

But hey, I'm sure you enjoyed The Martian as a Comedy or Musical.

Finally, saw Fury Road. Great action movie even if I couldn't understand half of what they were saying.

I'm hoping it wins best Makeup and Editing.

Any group who acts like morons ironically will eventually find itself swamped by morons who think themselves to be in good company.

Star Wars TFA was never going to win best picture. Honestly, it's a fun movie, but not a great movie. It satisfies peoples' hankering for lightsabers and spaceships the same way Furious 7 satisfies the desire to see cars do stupid stunts and Vin Diesel hitting people with a wrench.

Great fun but not a great movie. I'd just as likely expect Furious 7 to have won an oscar.

edited 18th Jan '16 10:08:18 PM by willyolio

Well, no. Still, that doesn't mean that it shouldn't have been nominated (though I personally don't think it should've). The Dark Knight was never going to win either, but people were still miffed when it wasn't nominated. Babe and Toy Story 3 never had any chance either, but they were still nominated.

Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.

nah, this year had tons and tons of great films. I wouldn't rank star wars high enough to fill a slot for best picture.

as a semi-star wars fan (i've watched all the movies and played a few video games, but that's it) i have to say it really wasn't a film worthy of oscar nomination. It's fun. It delivered what people were expecting. But so did Pacific Rim and Furious 7.

It's fun and satisfies the nostalgia, but there's no oscar category for nostalgia.

and i hope nobody tries to play the box office numbers into this, or else jurassic world would be one of them too. The Dark Knight wasn't supposed to earn an oscar nomination just on box office results alone. TDK had some good philosophical questioning about the nature of good and evil and the role of vigilante justice, pretty deep for a comic book film. Stuff like that arguably could have earned it an oscar nomination. But Star Wars TFA is just... star wars served on a platter, nothing more, nothing less.

edited 18th Jan '16 11:38:46 PM by willyolio

People on tumblr are complaining that the Oscars aren't diverse enough and I'm surprised no one else has talked about it

edited 19th Jan '16 2:48:27 AM by deadwaste

Eh, that's tumblr for you.

Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.

Seriously, why do people care about what Tumblr thinks anyway?

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

It isn't just Tumblr who's pissed that the Oscars and their voting committee are a whites-only reverse ghetto that shits all over the concept of diversity. Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee (and others) have boycotted the event already.

And it's even made the news over here too.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/18/spike-lee-boycott-2016-oscars-nominations-academy-awards-lack-of-diversity

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/straight-outta-compton/will-packer-academy-racism-embarrassing/

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/screenwriter/2016/01/18/spike-lee-will-boycott-the-oscars/

It's tackling the problem from the wrong angle, though. As long as there is only a small number of "diverse" people working in the industry, you can't get all worked up over the fact that from a list of, let's say 30 white actors and 2 blacks, the academy decides that the five best ones are all whites. Before you can honestly attack the academy concerning their choices, you need to offer enough choices that the overlooking of the diverse actors are definitely about the skin colour and not just simply about the fact that there is simply not much to pick from. And can we honestly say that the possible choices this year were better than what was nominated? I don't think so.

I wonder if this will actually effect the ratings.

Any group who acts like morons ironically will eventually find itself swamped by morons who think themselves to be in good company.

Spike Lee is boycotting the Oscars? Stop the presses!

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!