Its the moment that the film industry awaits with eagerness and suspense. Its what all the other award ceremonies lead up to. What happens there, surely will happen at the Oscars. Its often set in stone, especially when it comes to the Golden Globes. But in recent times, hasn't the Academy Awards become somewhat of a gimmick? Maybe you think its harsh words but no more so than the nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards.
This year's ceremony will take place on the 27th February and will be hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway respectively. It has been described as the event that will honour the best and greatest films of 2010 which is exactly the purpose of these awards. But unless you're idle and the nominations fell on deaf ears, there is a slight uproar about this year's list of potential winners. And where do I start?
One of the crucial decisions for the Academy was when they decided to increase the Best Picture category from 5 films to 10 films, giving their verdict that it would broaden the ability of specialist films to enter the category. Big decision since this means there is more competition. And no surprise that this year hosts some of the biggest films of the last decade; Toy Story 3, Inception, The Social Network and the Kings Speech to name a few. Yet here's my issue: by increasing the chances of Best Picture, you're left with literally no competition. If you were to think about it, when there were 5 films to be chosen, there was roughly 10 stellar films out that year that could have made the cut and therefore 5 missed out. The 5 that were in the category were made to fight it out in a good old-fashioned fight. The problem now? The category accomodates everyone of 2010's best films which means even a nomination gains the film more attention and therefore more money. The Academy is supposed to pick on the genuinely great films of that year. Winter's Bone is not one of them. Hate to break the news but it just isn't worthy. I watched this last week; great performance from Jennifer Lawrence which didn't deserve a Best Actress nomination and the film as a whole doesn't retain a great quality nor are its filmic methods outstanding compared to that of Black Swan or Inception. This is where the politics enter....
Take the Best Director category. This is the category that has infuriated myself, and many others, the most. Christopher Nolan, quite frankly, is the shining light of contemporary cinema. His films are thought-provoking, dark, viscerally enchanting and his writing skills are phenomenal. He takes pre-existing products like the Batman franchise and creates a beautifully dark and brutal world for the character to inhabit. He creates worlds literally beyond your imagination in Inception but never EVER treats you like you're an idiot, despite the great amount of narrative layers the film has. He is, like Tarantino, a master of cinema. And what does he get.......nothing. Inception has a very respectable 8 Oscars nominations for many great categories but the gaping hole is that of Best Director. Knock knock Academy; his film made over $800million at the box office, be conceived from an entirely original idea that took ten years to put into words, walk away easily with the best film of 2010 by a country mile and still not get a nomination. It worries me greatly because I really don't know what more he has to do to have his work acknowledged. The man who clearly stole his nomination is David O. Russell, a director so pretentious and self-loving that he thinks I Heart Huckabees was a masterpiece. Don't get me wrong; I'm yet to see the Fighter and from what I've heard its fantastic. I'm not doubting that. But guys, seriously, like the Kings Speech before it; its an actor driven film if I've ever seen one. For Russell to say Aronofsky got nominated because his film has sex, girls and ballet and Fincher got nominated because he made the 'Facebook movie' is both ridiculous and possibly the stupidest thing he could have said. Nolan's film is arguably the most directed film of 2010. For those that don't know, Nolan doesn't have a 2nd camera unit and observes/takes ALL SHOTS of his films himself along with his longtime collaborator Wally Pfister. Its things like this that win you awards, not 'sex, girls and ballet'. Russell can say these things but it still doesn't change the fact he isn't a very inspired director. David O. Russell, count yourself lucky.
Whilst that was a big rant about one category, it still symbolises what the Academy now seems to be about. I like to call it 'jumping on the band wagon'. By this I mean they feel the need to nominate films in certain categories where they don't belong when, say, Colin Firth gets all the critics thumbs up in the Kings Speech. Firth whole-heartedly deserves the Best Actor cause he was amazing but his film holds the most nominations for this year and yet I ask simply why? There isn't anything technically fantastic about it. Its actor driven and pretty straight forward. The same goes with the Fighter from what I've heard. Straight forward boxing biopic which is held together (made better) by the great performances of Bale, Wahlberg, Adams and Leo. The Academy needs to give space for the so-called 'specialist' films that wish to give a better chance to. Two major exclusions, along with Nolan, was Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine and Andrew Garfield in the Social Network. Michelle Williams: Brilliant and haunting but without Ryan Gosling support, literally nothing. And he was better, in my opinion. Andrew Garfield, if you ask me, was the emotional core of the Social Network. Sure, Jesse Eisenberg was great as Zuckerberg and served his nomination. But without Garfield's betrayed and tortured character, we wouldn't hate Zuckerberg as much as we did. And in simpler terms, it was an amazing performance. Academy members, you will pay dearly for these exclusions.
The Academy needs to seriously consider their stance on what is good and bad. They need to only nominate films that are a) deserving of these awards b) are of superior quality to anything else and c) not what just the public wants. They need to shake it up a bit and not vote for what they think others want. That's why its a good competition because upsets are truly amazing things. I'm personally voting for Inception and The Social Network to overshadow the Kings Speech. If they can win most of their categories, the Kings Speech only needs the Best Actor. Sorry but its true. And Academy members, please stop giving the Coen Bros the attention they already have........
Tom Ward
