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Special Features
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| James Cameron-Avatar | Peter Howell
October 2009
Movie Entertainment
The arrival of October signals the start of movie awards season – months of praising, preening and punditry that lead to the Academy Awards in spring.
But something else is in the air along with the falling leaves. It’s a sense of uncertainty not seen for decades at the Oscars, and with it a greatly enhanced excitement about an event that had long grown stale.
This year, Oscar may find his funny bone and grow a backbone. Comedy films and action/adventure movies finally have a chance at the gold. For the first time since 1943, there will be 10 nominations for Best Picture, instead of the usual five.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the surprise change in June, a move president Sid Ganis said was designed to make the Oscars “more interesting and less cloistered.”
Translation: more popular and less snobby.
It’s no secret that Academy members prefer to honour movies they deem to be quality pictures rather than ones that appeal to the public. This sentiment most egregiously presented itself last year in the Best Picture nom for Holocaust guilt drama The Reader, despite its unimpressive $34 million (U.S.) in box-office receipts, while The Dark Knight with its near-record $533 million take was deemed unworthy of major honours.
But 10 nominations open the field. It means a comedy like The Hangover, a runaway summer hit, now has a serious chance at a Best Picture nod. So does The Hurt Locker, a tense war drama that in other years would have been overlooked because of its dire Iraq War setting and its dearth of big-name stars.
The wider slate also raises the possibility that animated films may get a shot at Best Picture, instead of being relegated to the Best Animated Film ghetto. Other neglected genres such as horror, sci-fi, documentaries and westerns can likewise expect more than just a shrug from Oscar.
The change is controversial. Deadline Hollywood Daily blogger Nikki Finke, never one to mince words, headlined the move as “Worst Idea Ever,” carping that it “devalues the rarity of an Oscar nomination and belittles the judging process.”
Others, Ganis amongst them, say a lot of good movies were included in the 10 Best Picture nominees of the Academy’s early years. The last year for 10 nominees was 1943, when the gold went to Casablanca. Many film aficionados consider this Humphrey Bogart romantic thriller to be not just the best picture of its time, but of all time.
Most pundits have been warming to the change and they’re enjoying the freedom make Best Picture predictions that would have drawn hoots of derision in previous years.
Which is why I can boldly make early predictions, based on hunches and industry scuttlebutt, about possible Best Picture nominees for 2009. In alphabetical order and without my having yet seen many of these, here’s one possible list of 10:
• Amelia (Mira Nair)
• Avatar (James Cameron)
• Bright Star (Jane Campion)
• Capitalism: A Love Story (Michael Moore)
• An Education (Lone Scherfig)
• The Hangover (Todd Phillips)
• The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
• Invictus (Clint Eastwood)
• Nine (Rob Marshall)
• A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
If some of those picks surprise you, remember that the Oscars vexed pundits even with just five Best Picture nominees. This time last year, a film scheduled to go straight to video suddenly picked up Oscar heat that led to an eventual win.
Yes, none other than Slumdog Millionaire.
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