"The Academy Has a Certain Kind of Taste" and More Oscar Bits

In anticipation of The King’s Speech winning many gold statues in eleven days, David Poland, who once said, in no uncertain terms, “The Social Network will never win Best Picture,” reminds us that the “they” really can be pointed in the right direction, told just when to push the button and viola — his is a reasonable, fair-minded column, I think, far from the hysteria you’ve witnessed here at Awards Daily:

In the end, after all the shouting, it is about The Movie and The Academy Demographic. It is forever tempting to see The Academy as a monolith. It’s not. 5800 people is a lot of people. But the basic principles of movie marketing apply. Flukes happen, but there are movies that appeal to certain demographics and not to others. And The Academy, big as it is, has certain kinds of taste. Movie City News

The Guardian has done several “why such and such a movie” should win the Best Picture Oscar. ¬†Wouldn’t it be easier just to do one video that says “why the King’s Speech will win the Oscar”? ¬†Still, they’re worth a look. ¬†So far, the case for Black Swan, Toy Story 3 ¬†and The Fighter.

Slashfilm finds a funny IMDb goof where they already awarded The King’s Speech with Best Musical Score.

Movieline gives directors Joel and Ethan Coen their awards season trading cards for True Grit’s insane box office take of $160 mil.

The AMPAS has decided that size matters and have made the envelopes MUCH BIGGER. ¬†Is that an Oscar winner’s envelope in your pants or are you just glad to see me? ¬†”The idea of the envelope was created by the Oscars, so this really is THE envelope,” says Steve Bass, the production designer for this year’s show who helped usher in a new envelope era. “It made so much sense to heighten the visual experience of what the envelope is.”