My beef with the Oscars is they tend not to celebrate everything movies can be -- and end up degrading the business in the process. What I mean by that is movies are the ONLY artform that brings just about every artistic craft together to create a product that has the capacity to entertain and move vast cohorts of humanity. What the Oscars seem to want to celebrate are movies that stimulate the intellects of a small clique of reviewers and enteratinment professionals who see hundreds of movies every year and are easily bored with anything that doesn't feel fresh and challenging to them. Consequently the Oscars celebrate movies that speak to an ever diminishing constituency, and in the process diminish their own cultural relevance. They also fail to boost the theatrical business, even though you might think promoting the movie business should be a part of the Academy's mandate.
What to do about it? My solution is to add a new award. In addition to "Best Picture" there should be an award for "Best Entertainment." If a voter thinks "Nomadland" was the most entertaining picture of 2020 let them vote for it, but others might think that while "Nomadland" might have been by some criteria the "Best Picture," "Palm Springs" was far more enjoyable time in the theater. I'm sure there's nothing that can be done about the Academy's dedication to intellectual snobbery and arrogance, but at least my idea would allow the Academy to occassionally elevate the movies the rest of us like.
My beef with the Oscars is they tend not to celebrate everything movies can be -- and end up degrading the business in the process. What I mean by that is movies are the ONLY artform that brings just about every artistic craft together to create a product that has the capacity to entertain and move vast cohorts of humanity. What the Oscars seem to want to celebrate are movies that stimulate the intellects of a small clique of reviewers and enteratinment professionals who see hundreds of movies every year and are easily bored with anything that doesn't feel fresh and challenging to them. Consequently the Oscars celebrate movies that speak to an ever diminishing constituency, and in the process diminish their own cultural relevance. They also fail to boost the theatrical business, even though you might think promoting the movie business should be a part of the Academy's mandate.
What to do about it? My solution is to add a new award. In addition to "Best Picture" there should be an award for "Best Entertainment." If a voter thinks "Nomadland" was the most entertaining picture of 2020 let them vote for it, but others might think that while "Nomadland" might have been by some criteria the "Best Picture," "Palm Springs" was far more enjoyable time in the theater. I'm sure there's nothing that can be done about the Academy's dedication to intellectual snobbery and arrogance, but at least my idea would allow the Academy to occassionally elevate the movies the rest of us like.