So, about the Oscars...

[toef]

Based on an idea I had in one of the Avatar threads, I threw together a spreadsheet of all the Best Picture nominees from the last 30 years (movies from 1979 through 2008).

Then I added up all the Oscars they were nominated for, to see if there were any particular categories that the Best Picture movies tended to come from (e.g. Do Oscar voters consider directing, editing, and all sorts of other things when voting on BP nominees... or do they just pick the stories they like?).

This may make no sense to some people, but here goes. Using the 150 movies from the last 30 years, this is the percentage of them nominated in each of the other main Oscar categories:

88.67% -- Screenplay*

76.67% -- Director

62.67% -- Film Editing

48.00% -- Actor
46.67% -- Cinematography
45.33% -- Original Score

38.00% -- Supporting Actor
36.67% -- Art Direction
35.33% -- Supporting Actress
35.33% -- Sound**
31.33% -- Costume Design

28.67% -- Actress

10.67% -- Makeup
10.67% -- Original Song

08.00% -- Visual Effects

*There are two screenplay categories, but I merged them together. Separately they were 36.00% for Original Screenplay, and 52.67% for Adapted Screenplay

**Due to the confusion of sound Oscars (sometimes it's sound effects, sometimes it's sound, sometimes it's sound mixing, and there's usually always sound editing... I just combined them all).

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The numbers don't necessarily prove anything about how Best Picture nominees are selected, because not all movies even qualify for each award (like special effects, or make-up, or original song).

That being said, the Best Actress category is telling, though not necessarily surprising.

And story seems like it's king.

But make of the numbers what you will.