For 81 years the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has handed out the Academy Award of Merit (known as “Oscar” to the rest of us) as the highest recognition of the talent and technical craftsmanship that goes into filmmaking. Consisting of actors, directors, producers, cinematographers, writers, musicians and thousands of others, the Academy chooses and votes for work that it deems worthy of recognition for all of history. It’s a lofty goal, and as it stands Oscar has gotten it right more often than not—so much so that the awards have become the mainstream public’s go-to gauge for knowing what’s considered the best out there—but it’s not without shortcomings.
It only seems right that the very people that create films should be able to honor what they believe is the best work produced each year. It’s like any other trade. Who would know better the amount of hard work that goes into making a film than the people in the film industry themselves?
But filmmaking isn’t just a trade; it’s also an art form. And like all art, it’s subject to judgment and interpretation by everyone who experiences it. To look at it in those terms, it seems like an impossible task. How do you pick the best piece of art of any given year? Or the best artist? And how do you reconcile that with how the rest of the world feels?
The Oscar belongs to?
As awards season rolls around, studios and production companies get their films out in front of Academy voters to ensure that their film gets a fair chance at being seen. It’s a competition unto itself because there’s a lot riding on taking home Oscar gold, and some will stop at nothing to guarantee a win.
Maybe the most egregious example of this is the 71st Academy Awards, when Saving Private Ryan lost to Shakespeare in Love for Best Picture. Ask any casual moviegoer and they’ll say Ryan was the film that left the most lasting impression, but when Miramax unleashed a relentless campaign for Shakespeare, the result was mess of an Oscar race that saw Shakespeare nominated in almost every major category (and besting other more favored nominees).
And yet, the Academy isn’t impervious to guilt either. Whether a nominee should be rewarded for past work or was previously overlooked, there have been more than a few cases where Oscar probably wished for a do over.
In 1991, Denzel Washington seemed like a shoo-in win for Best Actor for Malcolm X, but the Oscar went to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman. Granted, both were strong performances, but there was a consensus that Pacino had won mostly because of his previous body of work, including The Godfather II, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico—all of which he was nominated for but never won. In 2002, the Academy attempted to rectify that mistake by awarding Washington with Best Actor for Training Day. It wasn’t anything Washington couldn’t do in his sleep, and I’m sure Russell Crowe (nominated for front-runner that year A Beautiful Mind) didn’t mind.
Perhaps the most satisfying Oscar race in recent years goes back to 1994′s 64th Academy Awards, when The Silence of the Lambs won in every major category. Lambs landed a one-two punch by being both a critical and sleeper box office hit, and to this day remains one of the defining films of its time. By all accounts, Lambs deserved every award that it won, and it showed that Oscar can be an honest, relevant mark of quality filmmaking.
With 2,738 Oscars rewarded since the first ceremony in 1929, it shouldn’t be any surprise that Oscar hasn’t always made the right call, especially compared to public sentiment. It doesn’t help that every once in a while the machinations that go on behind the scenes show themselves, making Oscar worth little more than a 8 1/2 gold statuette (see sidebar).
The problem that the Academy has always faced is that it’s often perpendicular to what people actually go to see in theaters. Box office mega-hits, whether they be big-budget action flicks or runaway comedies, don’t usually find their way to the Oscar line-up—perhaps they’re considered thoughtless genre work or just seen as “less-than”. Most of the time it just leaves mainstream audiences frustrated because they don’t see what they consider entertaining being recognized. For better or worse, that frustration eventually turned into flashy events like the People’s Choice Awards and MTV Movie Awards.
On the other hand, some consider the Oscars too pre-occupied with glamour and politics to be taken seriously as an judge of good filmmaking, paving the way for alternative awards ceremonies like the National Society of Film Critics Awards or Independent Spirit Awards. While those aren’t nearly as visible or high-profile as the Oscars, the films chosen at these ceremonies are generally considered of the utmost quality.
While the fragmenting of awards gives everyone a little bit of everything, it eventually dilutes the overall goal that the Academy set out for itself all those years ago. When you have five different “best” winners from different award ceremonies, which do you believe? Which do you trust? Maybe the answer is wherever your tastes lie, but ultimately, one has to be chosen as the best, and only one entity can declare it.
Throughout the years the Oscars have been the high-water mark for distinguishing the best of the best, and as much as simply getting considered for an Oscar has become a business unto itself, winning an Oscar should be a mark of unparalleled prestige and acclaim. The fact that the integrity of the Academy wavers from time to time is troubling, but all told, it still strives for a standard of excellence and quality.
Until Oscar falls so far out of touch that it becomes the Grammys (and this year could be that year, depending on who wins), I think it’s safe to say that most moviegoers will still pay attention to what the Academy considers to be good. All of Oscar’s choices may not the de facto best, but one can bet that they’re at least worth noting and seeing.
So who says the Academy has the right to tell us what’s the “best” of the year?
We do.