Anyone Can Be Nominated for Best Picture Now

How many movies do you see a year that you think could actually be the best picture of the year? I mean, sure, you might see some great comedies that made you laugh out loud the whole time, and some horror movies that really scared the bejeezus out of you, but we all know those aren’t Best Picture material. I’m talking epics, dramas, war stories, romances, tragedies, heroes. The category for the Academy Award for Best Picture was already one of five nominees. Truthfully, I feel that that’s plenty. I rarely think there are more than five pictures that could really be Best Picture. That had amazingingly developed characters, edge-of-your-seat plot twists, riveting emotion. Sometimes there aren’t even five, and a random straggler comes out of left field to be nominated. And yes, sometimes there are a little more than five, and some deserving pictures get left out. But ten? I’m skeptical.

The Academy announced the expansion earlier in the week of June 20th. Their reasoning is that they want to give more films a chance, particularly films that perhaps do not live up to the standard Best Picture formula of sweeping history and tragic romance. Films like Wall-E and Dark Knight. In theory, this is an improvement. Often films get left in the dust because they may not be, for lack of a better word, sophisticated enough, while they easily garnered the most acclaim from critics and fans alike. Think about Dark Knight. You don’t assume it to be Best Picture material, it’s a comic flick, but now it’s time for that to change. The Oscars are finally catching up to the times, and valuing the uniqueness and innovation in film. Could an animated picture take the grand prize? Maybe, if it’s truly the best work, and now it will have the chance. Still, ten pictures? I have the creeping suspicions that some duds will be thrown in to fill that out. Bruno, maybe? Okay, probably not. But with ten spots, who will get it this year? Has there even been any buzzworthy pictures? The upcoming Nine? Dorian Gray? Sherlock Holmes? Nottingham? We shall see…

June 28th, 2009 by Courtney Iseman | Posted in Hollywood | (0)