1941 – Best Film: How Green Was My Valley – takes top honours over Citizen Kane, the #1 film on AFI’s list of top 100 movies ever made
1952 – Best Film: The Greatest Show on Earth – beats out High Noon, regarded as one of film history’s best westerns
1998 – Best Film: Shakespeare in Love – wins over any number of nominees more deserving, including the amazing and unforgettable, Saving Private Ryan
And on and on it goes. So what can explain subpar movies taking home gold while the obvious contenders are left shaking their heads in disbelief? Campaigning, my friend. Politics and campaigning.
What is this “campaigning” you speak of?
Much like some sort of government election, people campaign on behalf of film nominees. Actors, actresses, studio heads, producers, that guy who secretly leaks screeners to the internet – all of them– they all try and influence the voting members of the Academy to mark their movie as number one when they cast their vote. This is typically done via interviews, talk show appearances, high profile events, and pretty much any other opportunity that might lead to mass-influence.
Some may simply call this promotion and not see a problem with it. And therein lies the real issue. There is an ingrained expectation that people will promote their films around award time. This frequent occurrence has slowly and subtly become almost mandatory somewhere along the way.
There is a lot of ugliness in how the Oscar winners are decided in which most people aren’t aware. There is an idealistic, almost naïve expectation that goes something like, “Well, this movie is the best movie of the five, therefore, it will win.” That’s how it should go. Reality, however, sometimes paints a different picture.
You lie! Back up your words with…more words!
There’s been a recent controversy with Mo’Nique, nominated Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Precious. Mo’Nique decided not to appear with fellow castmates at a number of public events, including Sundance and the Toronto Film Festival. When asked why she hasn’t been campaigning for her film, she plainly replies, “everything is up on the screen”.
Exactly. The performance is in the film, not on Oprah three months later. Awards for film quality should not be determined by publicists and marketing gurus, but by a straight forward vote evaluating one piece of art against all others. It’s offensive to have the pinnacle of film achievement cheapened to a high school popularity contest.
But that’s precisely what the Academy Awards has become. This Mo’Nique fiasco illustrates the expectation of the Academy for actors and actresses to carry out a campaign in order for their film or performance to win. Many insiders have reacted bitterly, implying that if Mo’Nique doesn’t care enough to push her movie, maybe she doesn’t deserve to win. Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere moronically summed it up, “Deny her a nomination and teach her a lesson”.
As she explains it though, it’s not that she’s trying to make a statement, but rather, it’s simply that with a family, including twin babies, and a television show which tapes six days a week, her schedule doesn’t allow for a random photo shoot on the other side of the country. But even if she was trying looking to make a point, could anyone (besides the moronic Jeffrey Wells) disagree with her?
La la la la la! I’m not listening!
The sad truth is that no matter how stalwart the voting members of the Academy think they are, a large portion are swayed by heavy campaigning or the lack of it. Perhaps it is naïve to hope for a day when a performance or a film will simply stand alone and win fairly (press coverage be damned) but isn’t that really how it should be?
