I read this week that “The Academy” is going to have a new award. They are calling it, “Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film.” Interesting.
How long has it been since you actually watched The Oscars from beginning to end? I used to throw an Oscar Party every year. I’d send out invitations and spend hours shopping for decorations, usually some form of black, white and gold or silver. The food and drinks overflowed the table. I couldn’t wait to find the nominations (usually listed in the newspaper—yes, print on paper at your doorstep every morning). Somewhere over time, it got to the point where I had to start making a list because I hadn’t seen most of the nominations. Most of them, my friends hadn’t even seen or they weren’t playing at my neighborhood theater. Eventually, I just started watching to see the dresses on the Red Carpet. Now, I’m proud to say, I don’t watch at all! I look up the winners the next morning just to see if they had truly picked any winners—the patron’s favorites.
The nominees are now picked by Boards and Corporations. How is that for real world? We’ve let politics infiltrate fun. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has increasingly been criticized for a lack of diversity in their nominees. Last year, many were shocked when Wonder Woman received zero nominees, a movie that received high praise, both critically and from audiences. Instead, The Academy nominated independent movies, most of which were edgier or outright perverse. Unsurprisingly, the telecasts rating recorded an all-time low.
Answering the call to include movies that are more crowd pleasers and hopefully increase their ratings, The Academy has created the new category. This raised all sorts of questions, however. Is The Academy admitting they rarely nominate “popular films” for Best Picture? Also, what is a popular film? What happened to the days when popular meant crowd pleasing. Isn’t that what “Best” means? There are plenty of other categories that would perfectly single out amazing talent such as editing, writing, costumes and enough to make up a three hour show. Best Picture should be judged by us, the Box Office. In fact, if you look at the top grossing movies of all time, domestically, adjusted by inflation, nine out of ten were either nominated or won Best Picture. Gone with the Wind (1939) made almost 200 million (inflation adjusted, almost two billion). Then there was Star Wars, The Sound of Music, E.T.; The Extra Terrestrial, Titanic, The Ten Commandments, Jaws, Doctor Zhivago. These were mostly family-friendly and real crowd pleasers.
The last two years the Best Picture category has brought us The Shape of Water and Moonlight, attacking family values, ethics and morals to the point of even displaying bestiality and homosexual agendas. No wonder the ratings have been so low. In the past five years out of 43 nominees for Best Picture they had only one family-friendly movie, Hidden Figures. Like so many other areas of life today, The Academy talks inclusivity but seems to practice exclusivity.
After reading Alive’s fantastic interview with the talented Robert Wagner, I think it’s time we take back our entertainment choices! There are many family films in the theaters now, support them. There are many subscription services that give you more family-friendly choices on your devices. Find them and subscribe. Vote with your wallet.
We can make a difference. Take up the challenge. And, of course, my email is always open to you. I would love to hear from you at carolyn@carolynhastings.com.
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