It’s the start of the year (yes I know January is almost over), which means it’s getting to be about that time when we have to listen to everyone’s predictions for the major movie awards (Oscars, BAFTAs, et cetera). As a self-proclaimed cinephile you’d think I’d be super excited about all of this, but I’m really not. Here’s why.
Okay, so why do I, a kid who loves movies, not like “award season”? Well, there’s a short answer and a long answer. The short answer (and the reason I wrote this) is that I’m also a lover of comic books, sci-fi, and it’s attendant film creations; and these have historically not been well received by the Awarding community. Take the Oscars, for instance. Since the 1920s, when The Academy has been awarding Best Picture, there have been nine fantasy/sci-fi/comic book movies nominated for the award, with only Lord of the Rings: Return of the King winning it. The acting categories don’t fare much better; only six people have been nominated in the acting categories, and Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix are the only people to win, both for portrayals of the same character. I could go on, but you get my point. The Oscars, and by extension other major movie awards don’t really care about the type of movies I like. It is almost understood that for those kinds of movies to win awards, they’ll have to be in the technical categories. It’s the only reason WB can run marketing like “Academy Award-winning Suicide Squad”. And some of the snubs make little sense. No disrespect to anyone nominated in 2017, but you cannot convince me that Hugh Jackman and Dafne Keen were not mind-blowingly spectacular in Logan. Hell, the movie itself deserved a nod (in my opinion), yet here we are.
Why did I write this? Well, like I said, it’s award season. And every time this time rolls around, there’s that part of my soul that wants to hope against hope that maybe this year is the year that AMPAS and the rest of the gang finally look beyond the CGI, and realize that there are excellent stories, and masterful performances in these movies. And every year, the hopes get dashed. I watched Spider-Man: No Way Home last Christmas, and I know that there was very little chance that it received any kind of love from the aforementioned gang, and that is a little disheartening. The way I felt leaving that theater is something I haven’t felt watching a movie in a very long time, and I feel like there should be more than a billion-dollar box office and >90% Rotten Tomatoes rating to reflect that.
Why is it important?, I hear you not ask. Isn’t beauty in the eye of the beholder? Yes, but we do not behold in isolation. Ever since 2019 (and even a few years before), there has been this growing conversation about the artistic value of sci-fi/fantasy/comic book movies, particularly the Marvel Cinematic Universe (yes, I swung this around to the MCU). And while it is always great to love and enjoy the things you love, there is the need for validation. To feel like my movie tastes are no less than any others. And in a world where quality of film is heavily weighted in favor of award winners and nominees, that will always feel like an unlikely occurrence.
