Fixing the Oscars: More categories! More nominees!
The Oscar nominations dropped this week, with the Academy Awards set to air on network television (which is still a thing) on March 12.
People don’t seem to care much about watching the Oscars. Ratings for award shows in general have been tanking for years, and that whole COVID thing didn’t help matters either.
I’m not here to propose ways to increase the ratings of the Oscar telecast. Who cares? Throw the thing on Netflix and stop worrying about trying to attract football fans to the show where people talk about politics while wearing tuxedos and sparkly dresses.
As a movie fan, however, I want the Oscars to be better. I want it to be more representative of what I like about movies. Basically… I want MORE. More nominees. More categories. More opportunities for mayhem.
See below for more details:
New categories: Stunts! Casting! Ensemble Performances!
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) hands out a couple awards that are long overdue for the Oscars. Priority No. 1: A proper stunt category. Nominate five films for their stunt work… as in stuff that wasn’t made with CGI. The actual nominee would likely be a film’s stunt coordinator, but you could also single out an individual stuntperson for those truly wild moments.
Stunt work is incredibly dangerous but often some of the main reasons we remember one big blockbuster over another. If anything, this would be a way for Tom Cruise to win a quick Oscar for hanging out of a plane or jumping over 97 cliffs or something.
The main SAG prize in film is Ensemble acting, rewarded to SAG members of a given cast (their equivalent to Best Picture). This is fun! The Oscars should celebrate the movies that are filled to the brim with incredible performances. Something like “The Irishman,” a movie with 10+ nominations that ultimately walked away with zero Oscars, would be a perfect Ensemble Acting winner. This year that could be “Women Talking” or “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Plus you get more glitzy celebrities on stage.
Don’t want to bother with any more actors? Fine. Hand out a Best Casting Oscar to the casting director who assembled that incredible ensemble. Give it to two people — the casting director and the director. Because Hollywood folks say that directing is essentially 90 percent casting…
Add a jury slot to the directing/writing/acting races
Traditionally, these categories consist of five names nominated by the associated branch of Academy members. Fine. Keep that. But every year, the Oscars should create a small panel of respected bigwigs (critics, Academy members, even younger non-Academy members) who will select a sixth nominee. They’d do this with the knowledge of what will be the five “at-large” nominees and then select a deserving sixth nominee. Think of it as a safety net for the Academy to avoid the embarrassment of an obvious omission. Which they’ve done occasionally… err, actually, which they seem to do every year.
Keep 10 nominees in Best Picture
Some argue that having so many Best Picture nominees makes the Oscars and the Best Picture category feel “less special.” Sure, five titles seems more prestigious, but what about all those years when the Academy’s prestigious Best Picture lineup contained one or two titles that didn’t deserve to be there in the first place. Remember the Weinstein Age? When Harvey Weinstein strongarmed his studio’s movies into major categories while blacklisting anyone who dared say anything bad about him? How prestigious.
The Academy expanded the Best Picture race back around 2008 when they decided to be snobs about celebrated movies like “The Dark Knight” and “WALL-E.” Sure, they still nominate some puzzling movies sometimes, but at least now more worthy movies have a decent chance at Best Picture. When there’s 300+ movies that come out each year, is having 10 nominees rather than five really less special?
Invite more horror filmmakers into the Academy, especially in the makeup branch
Horror movies routinely get the shaft by the Oscars. Sure, maybe a movie like “Smile” or “M3gan” isn’t the epitome of “high art,” but some of the industry’s most exciting new filmmakers come from the horror genre, and many of the most ingenious behind-the-scenes techniques are arising from horror. More horror movies deserve spots in categories like Makeup & Hairstyling and Sound, especially as they’re often executing more with less budget and resources. Sure, it can be icky sometimes, but that’s the point.
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Tyler Wilson is a member of the International Press Academy and has been writing about movies for Inland Northwest publications since 2000, including a regular column in The Press since 2006. He can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.