2022 Oscar Nominations Are Out, But Who Cares?

                                                   

Last week, the 2022 Oscar Nominations were announced, but this reaction from actor/filmmaker Seth Rogen sums up how many people feel about it:

“I don’t get why movie people care so much if other people care what awards we give ourselves, to me, maybe people just don’t care. I don’t care who wins the automobile awards. No other industry expects everyone to care about what awards they shower upon themselves. Maybe people just don’t care. Maybe they did for a while and they stopped caring. And why should they?” (Insider, February 10, 2022)

I follow the Oscars - the buzz leading up to, who won or lost, etc. – because, obviously, I have a film site, and because it might turn me on to some movie I haven’t heard much about, or heard of at all. For instance, CODA, and most of the short films. I also hope the noms point people to worthy films such as DRIVE MY CAR.

But I totally get why a lot of folks don’t care about the Academy Awards as evidenced by the very low ratings the event has experienced in recent years. Last year’s Best Picture winner, Chloé Zhao’s excellent NOMADLAND starring Frances McDormand, wasn’t seen by many people even after the Oscar bump (it also won two other Oscars). It wasn’t a flop as its box office more than tripled its budget, but was still an arthouse indie which means a very limited audience.

There have also been many forgettable films that have won the Best Picture Oscar such as GREEN BOOK, CRASH, THE ARTIST, and a number of others. When have you heard anyone bring up OUT OF AFRICA in a conversation recently? Nobody I bet. Trying to remedy the fact that the movies that wide audiences are familiar with regularly only receive technical nods like visual effects if they get any recognition from the over 9,000 Academy members at all.

 

To remedy this, in actions like the Best Picture nomination of BLACK PANTHER (the first superhero movie ever nominated for this category) in 2019, this year the Oscar planners came up with the announcement that Twitter’s top fan-voted film will be recognized during the broadcast on March 27.

However, many of the films that have won Best Picture since 1929 have become classics so maybe a film like NOMADLAND will gain traction in years to come. I doubt it.

This is why I believe many people don’t care about the Oscars. I love seeing people tweet or post about not caring about them, which I find funny as if you really don’t care, why would you announce anything about it all? I get that somebody might have a good point to make in addition to saying such, but most of the time it’s just that boring statement alone.

I care, but largely just bitch about them like repeatedly complaining that DANCES WITH WOLVES won the most coveted movie award over GOODFELLAS, and that was over 30 years ago!

So film-fans who say they don’t care about the Oscars still can’t help from paying some attention, and commenting on what won or lost the day after, or even during the broadcast itself. I think Rogen (Seth not Joe Rogan) has a legit argument, but there is enough of a counter argument that they do matter at least somewhat. Now watch as the awards program gets even lower ratings than last year.

And it’s all NOMADLAND’s fault.

More later...