Oscar Schizophrenia

Based on a study of the last ten years of the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have decided to change their format yet again.  Just when the misguided idea of a top ten Best Picture line-up was starting to jell with the obsessives, a new ruling now states that their can be anywhere from five to ten nominees for Best Picture.  There's a nugget of wisdom behind this latest change, as now it's required for each nominee to earn five percent of #1 ballots in order to receive a nomination, thinking of course that with ten automatically each year, a few "lesser than" choices will slip through the cracks.  And I suppose there's the added spectacle of having to wait until nomination day to know just how films will be nominated for Best Picture.  The new ruling was formed from a study of the last decade of Oscar balloting that seemed to indicate that there were more than five "mathematically" movies that deemed worthy of the highest cinematic honor, but also with the ten that has been in the last two years of the ceremony, there might be less than ten.  Oh, what I wouldn't give to spend a couple of hours looking at their statistics...really, if any of my readers work for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, I can absolutely be trusted; just an hour...I promise.

The question is why?  Why the sudden change a mere two years after the top ten was reinstated?  And this is what worries me, for it feels after eighty-three years the Academy is unsure of itself and feels a need to respond to every criticism.  This is an institution that's supposed the highest film accolade in the land, deeply rooted in tradition, and loved or hated, the Academy sets the standard...why the sudden flaky growing pains.  Is it a response to last years line-up, or something bigger.  Last years nominees were:

• 127 Hours
• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• Inception
• The Kids Are All Right
• The King's Speech
• The Social Network
• Toy Story 3
• True Grit
• Winter's Bone

All in all a respectable line-up...not my top ten, but it's the Academy's top ten.  And actually a nice group of films, all which were respected both critically and commercially in their own rights.  There's hardly a feeling with last years top ten that there's an embarrassment in the mix (the winner on the other hand!), nor a major cause for an entire overhaul.  Last years ceremony was a muddled mess of execution, rightfully critically lambasted, but it hardly seems fit to undo something that the Academy fought so hard to do two years ago.

When the initial change occurred two years ago, there was instant criticism that it was a mere ratings ploy, a chance to get some blockbusters back in the mix, and unfairly or not it must have been seen a response to the snub of The Dark Knight the year before.  The Academy countered that the top ten would open slots to a more eclectic selection of films, with the hopeful inclusion of independent, animated, foreign and documentary movies.  And while two years may or may not be a big enough time-span to truly see that pan out, there's a nice sentiment (even only if was for press purposes) to that idea.  But the idea of now going for a short lived format to a seemingly anything goes format seems even a bit more desperate, like the Academy is willing to jettison nearly anything now to impress it's detractors...for example the animated feature category now can have from two to five nominees each year, having to pass the "quality" litmus test of its members.


The strange thing is that the Academy, even back when there were only five Best Picture nominees, still nominated the same type of Academy-based movies.  Widening or shortening the list still won't account for taste.  Perhaps The Blind Side (2009) wouldn't have received a Best Picture nomination without ten slots...is that so much better or worse than Frost\Nixon (2008) or Chocolat (2000) receiving one with only five slots?  And perhaps a wonderful, if hard-to-sell indie like Winter's Bone (2010) wouldn't have made it in last year without the cushion, would it now?

Top Ten

Roger Ebert's ten favorites of 2009 follow. Love him or hate him is the most prolific film critic in the world, and the his opinion and knowledge of the film medium counts. Rather than a traditional list he has divided it up, sharing the love:

TOP TEN MAINSTREAM FILMS:

• Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
• Crazy Heart
• An Education
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Knowing
• Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
• A Serious Man
• Up in the Air
• The White Ribbon

Special Jury Prize: Avatar

TOP TEN INDEPENDENT FILM:

• Departures
• Disgrace
• Everlasting Moments
• Goodbye Solo
• Julia
• Silent Night
• Sin Nombre
• Skin
• Trucker
• You, The Living
  

Sight and Sound's 10 Tep of 2009

The UK film magazine Sight & Sound is a premiere selection of film discussion. Very hoity-toity stuff. They have released their ten best list compiled from over 60 top film critics all over the world-- including Amy Taubin (Film Comment) and Kenneth Turan (The Los Angeles Times).

1. THE PROPHET (Jacques Audiard)- the Grand Prix winner at this year's Cannes Film Festival, as well as France's submission for this year's Foriegn Film race. Sony Pictures Classics is slated to release the film eary 2010.

2. THE HURT LOCKER (Kathryn Bigelow)- nice that an American film placed so high, as of know awards buzz is very strong for Bigelow's Iraq war chamber piece.

3. 35 SHOTS OF RUM (Claire Denis)- had a very limited release here in Los Angeles earlier this year...Denis has always been a critical favorite.

4. THE WHITE RIBBON (Michael Hanake)- this year top prize winner at Cannes as well as Germany's submission for Foreign Langauge Film; Sony Pictures Classics will release it later this month.

5. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Tomas Alfredson)- deemed eligible for Oscar consideration last year-- it was denied, aside from universal international fanfare-- I hear Hollywood is planning a remake to this Russian vampire coming of age story...be afraid!

6. UP (Pete Docter)- Pixar's latest treasure, soon could hopefully be only the second animated feature nominated for Best Picture, even it's only be default of 10 nominees.

7. WHITE MATERIAL (Claire Denis)- I said Denis was a critical favorite; I really need to see some these films, I hear Denis' 2000 film Beau Travail is a beaut...

8. BRIGHT STAR (Jane Campion)- Campion's comeback about poet John Keats will probably factor in somewhere in the Oscar race, but considering it's indifference box office and lack of buzz, where?

9. ANTICHRIST (Lars von Trier)- Given the hideous reviews that troublemaker von Trier received stateside for this, I'm surprised it made it here, but got to respect a man who seeks to turture his audience without mercy.

10. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (Quentin Tarantino)- that small film from the summer from that director guy nobody's heard of.