OSCARS to pick 10 Best Picture Nominees

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by SonOfArathorn

What I really want to know McCrutchy.. is if the Oscars aren't that important etc why do you have such a strong opinion about it? I read this article and though "meh, now there's another 5 nominess I could give a sh*t about, I'll still watch the films I want to watch".

But you seem to be truly angered. As a "true film buff" (whatever that means, far too subjective a term to be taken seriously) I wonder why it matters all?

I know we all here take movies et seriously, we wouldn't be here discussing if we didn't. Maybe I'm missing something.

First of all, from a historical perspective, I have a great respect for AMPAS and the Oscar ceremony. I'm angry because the Oscars have become unimportant now. There was a long period of time when an Oscar nomination meant the film was one of the cream of the crop, and while the Best Picture winner was important, there was not that much of a stretch between the nominees and the winner. AMPAS was already rocking the boat before by nominating unfit dramas in order ro avoid nominating the very few films from unrecognized genres that would have deserved it instead. Now, with a whopping ten spots, the Best Picture nominee list will become bloated with indie movies that won't win because they won't get enough votes, and box-office successes which generally offer little that warrants such a nomination. Instead of slightly broadening their horizons as they should have done, they have ostensibly gone from one extreme to the other, creating almost a free-for-all between every film that gets good reviews and every film that is extrememly popular/profitable.

And the other reason why I'm angry is that like it or not, the Academy Awards are the international face of American film criticism and viewership. When other countries see films that wouldn't normally make the cut for their best film prize being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, it will make the United States the laughing stock of world cinema. We are supposed to be pioneers in film, or at the very least at the forefront of the medium. Instead, all AMPAS will do is make America look stupid.