Oscar The Snob

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences cared about movies that you and I and other Americans had actually seen. Popular movies such as Titanic, Forrest Gump, Chicago, and Gladiator could contend for, and even win, the Best Picture category, while the actors and actresses in such films had a chance to grab a golden statuette on Oscar Night.

Not anymore.

These days a combination of Academy snobbery and Hollywood’s trend of releasing its “serious” movies on the very eve of the New Year have conspired to keep you and me, Mr. and Mrs. Average Movie-Goer, out of the Oscar loop.

Have you seen this man? The great Peter O’Toole (seen here with co-star Jodie Whittaker) was nominated for a Best Acting Oscar for his performance in Venus, a film very few Americans have had the opportunity to view.

These insidious developments were apparent last week when the Academy announced its nominations for the 79th Annual Awards, to be presented in a live televised ceremony on Sunday, February 25th. The Academy’s list of major nominations contained movies and performances that could only be termed “obscure.”

For instance, in the Best Actor category, only two of the five nominees were from movies in the Top 100 grossing films for the year 2007: Lenoardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond (#62 in the Top 100) and Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness (#12). The others included Forest Whitaker in the critically acclaimed The Last King of Scotland, Peter O’Toole in Venus and Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson.

The Best Actress nominations also included films that most of America has yet to see (by virtue of their positions in the Top 100). We saw Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada (#16) and Helen Mirren in The Queen (#87), but relatively few of us had a chance to witness Kate Winslet in Little Children, Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal or Penelope Cruz in Volver.

The Supporting Actor and Actress nominations were a little more tilted toward popular fare as Djimon Honsou (Blood Diamond #62), Alan Arkin and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine #51), Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls #28), and Mark Wahlberg (The Departed #17) all starred in movies in the Top 100 for the year. Four such nominees, however, did not: Jackie Earle Haley, Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi and Cate Blanchett.

In the Best Director category, three directors were in the Top 100 for their films: Martin Scorsese with The Departed (#17), Stephen Frears with The Queen (#87), and Paul Greengrass with United 93 (coincidentally #93).

The Best Picture nominations mirrored the other categories with The Queen, The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine representing the Top 100 grossing films while Babel and Letters from Iwo Jima have yet to make their mark with American audiences.

So what’s going on? Well, a couple of factors are responsible for this trend. For one thing, 2006 was a year that saw audiences flocking to the types of films that the Academy historically ignores…usually for good reason. Although Johnny Depp earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrrow in the original Pirates of the Caribbean a few years back, there was nothing special about his reprise of the character in the 2006 sequel. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’ Chest resonated with movie-goers, however, and was the number one box office draw of the year with a total domestic gross of $423,315,812 (Since the end of the year, it has surpassed the half billion mark).

Many of the other top-grossing films for the year were kids movies such as Over the Hedge, Happy Feet, Cars, and Night at the Museum. Then there were the silly comedies such as Click, Talladega Nights, Failure to Launch, and The Pink Panther (a total stinker that managed to come in at #25). Add to that the action/horror/sci-fi genres that the Academy historically ignores (Mission Impossible 3, Superman Returns, X-Men 3, Casino Royale, etc.) and you can start to see why the top movies of the year earned so few nominations.

But the Top 100 also included some good dramas that were ignored such as Inside Man, V for Vendetta, World Trade Center, The Good Shepherd, The Prestige, The Illusionist and Flags of Our Fathers. Why were they shut out when movies that few Americans saw like Venus and Half Nelson included?

Part of the problem lies with the Hollywood system that now waits until the waning hours of a year to release its Oscar-contending dramas. One solution to that trend would be to require films to be in wide release by the end of the year to be eligible for Academy consideration. Another solution would be to move the actual awards gala to April or May so us movie-lovers who live someplace outside New York and Los Angeles would have the opportunity to view the nominated films before the big night.

Like I said before, this new trend of the Academy honoring obscure films is a fairly recent phenomenon, roughly parallel to the movie industry’s new doglike obsession with independent (read “Sundance Festival”) films. Remember, it was only three years ago when The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, one of the top grossing films of all time, won the Oscar for Best Picture.