This
year the Academy Awards tried to add the popular film category; an attempt to
appease viewers that ultimately got mocked and failed. This category is widely seen to have been
added because of two things: the popularity of Black Panther, a bandwagon upon
which the Academy wanted to jump without actually considering it for best
picture, and lower ratings of the show in general.
I'm
actually not going to talk about whether or not Black Panther deserves to win,
or even a nomination. It was a very good
movie, and it also had some glaring flaws.
Most of all, though, the whole subject of its merit brings out the
absurdity of what a "best picture" is. Can we really declare a single movie to be
the best when there are so many genres and styles? Isn't it like comparing apples and oranges to
a degree?
But
what I find particularly ludicrous is the hypocrisy that created this apparent
need for a popular category. The idea
that something popular needs a separate category from best implies that if
something makes a lot of money, it is inherently inferior to something that
doesn't make a lot of money. While
certainly the motivation for wealth can be separate from the motivation for
art, the idea that something that is popular can't be great is the very
wrongful thinking that caused Hitchcock to never win a regular award, and why
one eluded Spielberg for so long.
But
what of you, Academy Awards? Isn't the
major reason why you're doing this so you keep your audience? We all hear you every time you complain that
the audience numbers are shrinking. If
the Academy Awards really believed that art and commerce are so separate, why
are they so concerned with their own ratings?
It seems to me that if you're going to frown upon popular films that
make money and smugly hold films that don't on a pedestal, then you shouldn't
be so concerned about your own wealth.
But
if ratings are so important, maybe stop looking down on those producers who are
literally doing the exact same thing as you.
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