I think this might actually be the poster. Okay, Awards Daily readers, imagine what POSSIBLE. But first you have to accept their limitations (they’re mostly old white guys), accept the limitations of Hollywood overall (mostly run by white guys), accept the limitations of film criticism in 2015 (mostly white guys), accept the limitations of ticket buyers and the you can start to imagine what’s possible.
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Oh Ben, please.
NSFC Mad its choice, period. They went for Godard, and kudos to them for doing so. His movie (let alone his body of work) is much more experimental and revolutionary than Linklater or Boyhood will ever be. STILL blaming them for not sheepishly going Boyhood means that after all, they are not “irrelevant”; and it show a narrowmindedness superior to those blaming Academy for not being “black enough” (to be honest, having more black people in the Academy just on the assumption “they would automatically “vote black” ” is much more racist than having a roster of 20 white (all of them deserving) thesps nominated.
Not sure if anyone else pointed this out (and it’s somewhat unfortunate as I was hoping for Interstellar to make the ranks and quite frankly I hadn’t bothered to go back and look until now) but the BFCA 85 or higher rule of thumb has held true for yet another year…
BFCA Movie Ratings 2014
Boyhood – 96
Whiplash – 93
The Imitation Game – 92
Selma – 92
Birdman – 91
The Grand Budapest Hotel – 87
The Theory of Everything – 87
American Sniper – 85
A Most Violent Year of course did not uphold the NBR trend but then it’s BFCA score was only 81 so this should have been predictable. Others films 85 or higher that could have been…
Guardians of the Galaxy – 91
The LEGO Movie – 91
Force Majeure – 90
Gone Girl – 90
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – 89
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – 88
Ida – 88
Nightcrawler – 88
How to Train Your Dragon 2 – 87
Snowpiercer – 87
Wild – 87
The Babadook – 85
Big Hero 6 – 85
Foxcatcher – 85
Still Alice – 85
Two Days, One Night – 85
IMAGINE WHAT’S POSSIBLE…but then, well…stop…
I am MALE and I am WHITE. And here is what COULD have been POSSIBLE:
Life Itself
Locke
Belle
Tracks
Obvious Child
The Babadook
Under The Skin
God Help The Girl
Begin Again
Only Lovers Left Alive
The Double
The Immigrant
Force Majeure
Snowpiercer
The One I Love
Calvary
Mr Turner
Listen Up Philip
Lucy
Edge of Tomorrow
Palo Alto
Steve50: Terrific earlier posting about ”Imagine an Oscars.” Well-said!
Corvo: ”A black film winning .. already happened. It will happen again.” But will it take another 86 years? 😉
Jonny: Good point. It’s ridiculous to believe that race doesn’t play some factor in people’s tastes and what they gravitate toward seeing or identify with. The Academy membership is 94% white. ”Imagine” how different the nominations would be if the Academy membership were 94% black, Asian and Latino.
Yes, it is possible to nominate someone although they don’t deserve it, just to look politically correct. That’s what some people are advocating.
“Weinstein isn’t infallible. Last year, he had ”Fruitvale Station” and ”The Butler”: Zero Oscar nominations”
Yes, he also had Mandela that year. That could only manage it’s way into best song nomination. What can we say Fruitvale Station, The Butler and Mandela had in common.
Waltz With Bashir! That should have been the first movie in Academy history to be nominated for Best Picture, Best Foreign Language (which it was), Best Animated Film, and Best Documentary. That would’ve been something to see.
Yes, some auteurs have won, but not for films that made them auteurs in the first place. They were ignored for those, for whatever reasons. The thing is…we don’t celebrate or appreciate our filmmakers, the artists behind the movies. Does the public even know to look out for directors, or that directors are usually responsible for putting a vision on screen? Not really. Here it is all about celebrity. I had never heard of Kathryn Bigelow before The Hurt Locker. Why is that? We don’t support and publicize our unique voices.
A black film winning is not only possible, but plausible. It already happened, it will happen again. Nothing extraordinary here. The only impossible thing is a sci-fi film winning best picture: that is forbidden by statute and that’s the only revolutionary change I’m asking for.
Ben, I’m talking about the top 3 critics groups that are, arguably, the most prestigious, not the best Oscar predictors. The NSFC may not always pick films that end up going to the Oscars. But any critics group that can pick Pan’s Labyrinth, Capote, Melancholia, Inside Llewyn Davis, There Will Be Blood and Waltz With Bashir in the last decade alone shows that they clearly search what they feel is the best of the year. Out of all of them, I’d only truly agree with There Will Be Blood but I love the others very much too.
Jerry Grant, don’t forget about Scorsese finally winning! Though by 2004 it was sort of inevitable he would win at some point. But you’re right, they have become more diverse in auteur status, just not in the gender/race way we’re hoping for yet.
Love your list, Leeb! The fact that every one of your titles is mostly absent from major contention has taken the steam right out of this year’s race for me. I can only imagine how exponentially more exciting this year’s race would have been had they appeared in more categories.
I don’t, however, see any of these filmakers disappearing. They are all artists and they will find a way – and a medium – for us to see their works. Top line actors will continue to work for them. They fill a need for creative folk involved in making films and for thinking audiences who want something other than PeekFreens for dinner.
And, Paddy? *raises fist in solidarity*
I think it’s possible “Selma” wins Best Picture, “Lego Movie” wins Best Song, Linklater taking Director and Original Screnplay. That, would make me happy.
“American Sniper” losing all awards, would make me, in addition, happier.
Ben
Another commenter who thinks that rewarding the seminal film artist of our time and the most revolutionary, revelatory film of the year with a Best Picture award invalidates the prestige of the group that did so, just because it’s not American and didn’t reach the multiplex.
Fuck the haters, it’s Godard, bitches. The NSFC has more prestige than any of those other famewhore critic groups, pissing their pants every time the Oscar nominations are announced and they realise that they might as fucking well have picked Goodbye to Language because nobody even gives a shit about who won the NYFCC award for Best Cinematography come January anyway.
It’s a discredit to film that so much focus is given to Oscar. The general vibe is that film is a dying art form, that it’s now all about TV, it’s a real shame there’s nothing prominent that puts focus on Inherent Vice; Most Violent Year; Only Lovers Left Alive; Locke; Nightcrawler; Snowpiercer; The Immigrant etc, that would tell a different story but feels like those are the kind of films we might stop seeing much of.
Weinstein isn’t infallible. Last year, he had ”Fruitvale Station” and ”The Butler”: Zero Oscar nominations.
‘The Imitation Game’ repeats ‘Argo’ – wins Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Editing. See it’s possible for a film that went 11-0 at the Golden Globe Awards and Critics Choice Awards and has actually not won a single major critics award since Toronto to suddenly turn up the heat like ‘Crash’. if this happens then everybody will be looking at the films that Weinstein is distributing this year.
It is also possible that ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ is this year’s ‘American Hustle’.
The Academy has already shown what is possible by only nominating ‘Selma’ for best song and picture. Conversely it has shown that it was also possible for a best director nominee Bennett Miller not to get his film a best picture nomination.
Just maybe it is possible that ‘Selma’ wins best picture making the Guilds and Critics both equally redundant.
Imagine an Oscars that was not limited by single-minded white male voters, a herd-mentality critical community of diminishing analytical abilities, and a shrinking mass of ticket buyers who thought the movie-going experience was more important than the actual movies they were going to see for 9 months of the year.
Imagine an Oscars where actors and directors didn’t have to be politicians, only artists, to achieve praise from their own industry; where there is no end of year crush of “serious films” that not everyone will see until months after the awards, and where it is possible to get nominated for an award without the barrage of deflated footballs that are the ad campaigns – distorted, unfocused, and irrelevant to the works of art they are supposedly promoting.
Imagine an Oscars where all films, regardless of size, budget, genre or subject matter are seen by interested voters and considered equally for recognition and not dismissed for trivial reasons.
OH – hold the phone – you said “accept” the limitations. …hmmm.
OK – I imagine NPH will say “Dick Poop” and make some diversity quips to some very nervous laughter before the look of Grand Budapest and the technicalities of Interstellar are rewarded. The supporting players won’t surprise and the writing awards will hint at what’s to come, right after the shocker that will occur in one or both of the lead categories. Can director and picture go tandem this year?..m-m-maybe?
Then we start all over again the next morning.
Imagine an Oscarcast that had in its derby the highest domestic grossing movie of the past 2 years from the same movie franchise, the first time in decades that a studio has scored back-to-back #1 films of the year and the first time ever for back-to-back *sequels*. But The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mockingjay 1 must sit this out because they “already got their award”.
If you told me in 2004 that in the next 10 years we’d see Best Picture Oscar wins go to the Coen brothers, Danny Boyle, Kathryn Bigelow, Steve McQueen, and Richard Linklater, I’d say that’s pretty amazing that Academy members have been rattled out of their comfort zone, and that yes I would eagerly watch those Oscar years with gratitude for the institution and optimism for the future.
Ha, that’s a great play on words, Ryan. Almost as good as your tweet about LBJ not thinking Ava DuVernay was ready yet.
If I were in an argumentative mood I would argue that the achievements of Redmayne and Turing do cause us to imagine what’s possible. (and passable) My top three movies of the year, though, were Gone Girl, Birdman, and Boyhood. The GG snubs still sting, esp. when Flynn may now lose awards she might have won because people want to stand alongside Oscar voters.
Imagine What’s Passable
Imagine what’s possible, huh?
How about this:
Picture: Selma
Director: Inarritu (or Bennett Miller)
Actor: Michael Keaton
Actress: Rosamund Pike
Supporting Actor: Edward Norton (or Mark Ruffalo)
Supporting Actress: Emma Stone
Original Screenplay: Nightcrawler
Adapted Screenplay: Inherent Vice
Cinematography: Birdman (though Deakins FINALLY winning would be cool, too)
Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Costume Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Makeup: Guardians of the Galaxy
Original Score: Interstellar (Desplat winning would be fine, though)
Original Song: “Glory” (“Everything is Awesome” would be acceptable)
Sound Mixing: Whiplash
Sound Editing: Interstellar
Visual Effects: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Foreign Film: Leviathan
Animated Feature: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Documentary Feature: CitizenFour, but the acceptance speech includes “Why was Life Itself not nominated? What the hell is WRONG with you people???”
The rest: Eh
Ben: You were at the Governor’s Awards? Even that event has become a big studio campaign pitstop. They all rent tables and have their main Oscar contenders in house. If I were head of the Academy, I’d be emphasizing to voters that they have a duty as part of their membership and voting power to see all the films. This is about quality not most important or their friends. They don’t have to follow the previous awards and should nominate from any film those people in their branches who are most deserving. But they have to see everything. I’m not sure how much Cheryl Boone-Isaacs can do. She may have to play politics and worry about incoming revenue with the future museum. She also might not have the wide respect as someone who could really galvanize the voting body and stand up to people who try to manipulate the voters. Look how she handled “Alone Yet Not Alone” last year–what a joke!
I imagine it’s possible that the Academy is out of touch with everyone’s tastes, and what is right.
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It’s possible that they will award a film Best Picture, a film that started filming back in 2002, when A Beautiful Mind won Best Picture, and Chicago was on the horizon. 12 Years a boy, aka, Boyhood will likely win Richard Linklater’s first, and maybe only Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director.
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It’s possible that American Sniper will win and upset everyone with as much anger as when Crash won in 2006.
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It’s possible that far fewer people will watch the ceremony this year, since there are no actors of other races and ethnicities.
Maybe they realized they’re going to have a small audience after the nominations so they decided to only spend $3.50 on the poster.
I can imagine Patricia Arquette being BOYHOOD’s only win. Or perhaps not even getting in and Laura Dern taking it. That’d be a hoot. Especially if BIRDMAN wins the most Oscars in its place. Or better yet they spread the wealth in the main categories and then INTERSTELLAR takes home the most Oscars by getting the technical categories.
Oh yeah. I can imagine all kinds of stuff.
Yeah well if they can’t get out of their armchairs or beds to go to screenings; they can’t be bothered going through the ‘ordeal’ of watching the screener discs couried to their front door and putting them in the player and viewing them in the luxury of their own homes or hotels or condo’s, then I guess we have to imagine what’s possible for them and for us! What’s that sweetie? You can’t read the label on the disc, or see the captions on the screen, never mind. Shall I help you fill in the voting form? What’s that, you don’t know how to open the document? Here let me…..
They should allow anyone with a Filmmaking degree of any kind to vote for the Oscars. That way I can do it.
Well said KT!!!! I agree completely. At the Governor’s Awards in November, everybody kept saying to me “we’re a new Academy”. No they’re not.
Steven Kane: I disagree that the National Society ranks with NY & LA as the top 3 film critics. They are relatively old (1966) but likely the least influential of all voting bodies, and have a lot of overlap with NY. They vote late, and tend to be contrarian. I’m not a huge fan of Boyhood, but how could it lose Best Picture to Goodbye to Language after Linklater destroyed Godard on the director’s ballot? They just didn’t want to rubber-stamp Boyhood like everyone else in the end, and the voting, so sources say, was contentious. For better or worse, the third of the “big 3” critics groups is, for better or worse, the Broadcast Film Critics. Even in terms of prestige (beyond rubber stamping), I really thing the National Society has lost it. As for the National Board of Review, they are very old (1930) but irrelevant, and have been for years. No offense to any of the individual members of the National Board of Review!
I was waiting for your post on this. That poster is an embarrassment. And the Academy leadership is laughable, as is how they play the public. There’s so much they should be working to change. How about regulating smear campaigns that tear apart movies every year, unabated? How about doing something to give voting members more time to see movies? How about trying to level the playing field for films with different resources behind them, so that campaigning and money have less power than quality? Figuring out how to promote diversity within the industry too? Just “Imagine What’s Possible” if there was someone behind this organization that wasn’t afraid of breaking from the status quo and pissing off the bigwigs who take advantage of the system.
I think it’s possible Linklater becomes the first to win the best director Oscar after winning the NSFC, LAFCA and NYFCC since Bigelow. Last time before her? Soderberg. Before him? Nobody. He would be the 3rd person to win all 3 of the top critics awards for best director to then win the Oscar for it. Happens less than I realized. Also, Soderberg is the only person to win all 3 of the critics awards as well as the NBR to then win best director at the Oscar. He and David Fincher are the only two to win all 4, I believe. But poor Fincher…
I have a bet with my friend that all of the best actor/actress winners will be white… I’m about to make $7!