There seems to be something slightly amiss with the highly-lauded annual award ceremony known as the Academy Awards. It’s widely considered the most significant and influential of all awards for cinematic achievement, but is it the most objective?
Well, a ceremony recognizing excellence in film can’t be entirely objective. After all, film is more or less an art form, and art is judged subjectively. However, it seems there is a pattern in which films are selected every year by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters. This pattern isn’t exactly something these honorary professionals should be proud of.
Several Hollywood blockbusters make their debut every year, and the same things are said about every one of them: That movie is going to be an Academy Award nominee.
How do moviegoers know this? What makes us think the Academy Awards are going to nominate a movie right after we watch it? Who is really picking these nominations?
All of a sudden, we realize the same type of movies are selected annually, and audiences’ guesses for winners are consistently confirmed.
Now, don’t get us wrong; we’re not claiming something absurd such as conspiracy behind the whole thing, and frankly, it probably doesn’t matter that much if there is. But the pure essence of an award ceremony needs to be questioned when its winners are accurately predicted by the masses. This isn’t a sport in which we have numbers to crunch to determine a clear winner.
Hundreds — sometimes thousands — of feature-length films are made annually in English alone. Less than two dozen are nominated for the Academy Awards across all categories. Only a handful make it onto the prestigious categories such as Best Director or Best Picture, and each one is accurately predicted by everyone every year. An award for recognizing excellence in cinema? More like recognizing excellence in achieving unrivaled publicity.
