The 87th Academy Awards Backlash Has Begun

The same thing happens every year.  You can almost set your clock by it.  As soon as the broadcast comes to a close for the Academy Awards, people flock to the Internet to criticize all things Oscar.  From the length of the telecast (which is actually pretty valid) and the bits that failed to the polarizing acceptance speeches, the same people that during the weeks leading up to the Academy Awards ceremony claim how antiquated and irrelevant the Oscars are immediately start chiming in on what the Academy got wrong.  And there is nothing that gets folks in more of a tizzy than the movie that wins Best Picture.  A movie could win the top prize at the Academy Awards and be a better feature than The Godfather, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, and Gone with the Wind combined, but there will still be the detractors out there that claim, “That movie sucked.  It didn’t deserve Best Picture!”

 

Last year the group that rallied against 12 Years a Slave, which in my humble opinion was the greatest feature film of the year, had to preface their derogatory remarks with, “I’m not racist, but ….”  While the Academy Awards is the biggest of all the awards shows when it comes to filmmaking accolades, that doesn’t mean it is the be all, end all in deciding what is and is not the best picture, or who had the best performances/work from movies the previous year.  Sure, they are usually in the right ballpark when the announcement is made at the end of the night as to what gets to tout itself as the greatest film from that year, but mistakes are made.  I will go to my grave believing that Saving Private Ryan was robbed the Best Picture statue.

 

So it came as no big surprise that starting on Monday the criticisms of Birdman being the best movie of the year really ramped up.  A repetitive theme in the snarky comments was the win came as a result of the Academy showing love for its own group because Birdman is about the life of acting/Hollywood.  Essentially the argument is that movies about Hollywood/actors will win more because it is Hollywood/actors voting for the films.

 

At face value and without any actual evidence to support or oppose that claim, I feel like that is a somewhat ludicrous premise.  The Academy members that vote for the best picture of the year are made up of not just actors, but also directors, casting directors, cinematographers, costume designers, editors, executives, producers, public relations people, sound and visual effects employees, writers, and others.  The thought that actors are only going to vote for a movie as best picture because it features their own profession would be a valid one if the majority of the voters were just that single line of business, but with 17 categories of Academy members it would take a lot more than just the actors’ votes to make a film about Hollywood the best of the year.

 

So now let’s look at past winners.  In the 87 years the Oscars have been happening, a total of six movies associated with Hollywood or the acting profession (which I am including Broadway in that category) have been crowned the best.  Those films include The Broadway Melody, The Great Ziegfeld, All About Eve, The Artist, Argo, and Birdman.  That puts movies about movies winning the best movie award at a 6.8% win rate.  In fact, there are three genres that have a better win rate, and they are war films, biopics, and epic period pieces.  Dramas about British life have also won six times.

 

It is worth noting that three of the past four winners have been about the Hollywood industry, but prior to that you have to go all the way back to 1950 to find a Best Picture winner that involved acting.

 

Looking at the eight nominees from this year’s ceremony, claiming Birdman was the obvious winner because it was about Hollywood could be a valid one if it weren’t for the films it was up against.  War films, biopics, and epic period pieces, historically, have a better chance of being named the best picture, and dramas about British life have an equally good chance.  So really, the movies that fall into genres with a similar or better winning percentage at the Oscars include American Sniper (war/biopic), The Imitation Game (war/biopic/British life), Selma (biopic), and The Theory of Everything (biopic).

 

If you want to make a case for why one of the other nominated films is the worthy winner, that is fine, but don’t disparage Birdman because of an unproven theory about Hollywood and the Academy members.