Oscars Tonight

I do want to push back on the idea that the oscars dont have a lot of mainstream films these days, or that adults dont see films made for adults. Oscar ratings have been sliding for a while, and obviously this years total lack of buzz is largely due to the big films getting delayed, lets look at the best picture nominees from last year:

1917
Ford v Ferrari
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
Marriage Story
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Parasite
The Irishman

A majority of those (1917, Ford v Ferrari, Joker Little Women, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) made over $100 million in the US alone, and The Irishman certainly would have if it had actually had a real cinematic release. Similarly Parasite was one of the highest grossing foreign language films ever in the US and was a worldwide smash hit. The only two nominees that werent mainstream successes are Marriahe Story and Jojo Rabbit, and the former was easily accessible and probably much-watched via Netflix. Things have actually gotten better in terms of both recognition of popular films and people going to see the awards contenders in recent years. Compare that slate to anything from 2000-2008. Its clear that this is not where the problem lies, discounting this year.

Its also not fair to a lot of filmmakers and audiences to take the elitist stance of audiences are infantilising themselves with franchise films and family films when we have seen that those kinds of films can actually be great art with the right people behind them, look at Mad Max Fury Road or a lot of Pixars work. We have also seen adult (ugh at the phrase) awards films be rewarded by audiences for being great, like Parasite or 1917. So this notion is just wrong.

However with that said, this year was a bit different with more smaller films that might not usually get a look in (Sound of Metal being the main one here) due to the pandemic, so the oscars had a chance to give these films exposure and they blew it. The lack of clips was a huge mistake, as now audiences will have no reference for what any of these films are.

So I just need to say, go and watch Sound of Metal, its a terrific film.