The Year's Ten Best Pictures
NEWS FLASH: The Academy Awards people have decided to expand the list of Best Picture Nominees this year from Five to Ten.
Some critics are arguing that that will dilute the quality of the films being nominated.
I argue: Nonsense. The quality of the films being nominated the last few years have already been diluted.
It probably will take ten films to find two, much less five, worthy films; especially in today's era of either cheaply made, poorly structured and bizarrely theme-ed films (let's follow their proponents and kindly call them 'art' films), or films made for testosterone teens who crave violence and unadulterated sex (notice the word 'adult' in the middle of the last adjective: maybe it meant in the old days the 'adult' was part of judgement) or fixated adolescents who refuse to leave the pre-pubescent cartoon phase of their lives.
This, of course, does not even address the Academy's financial whoring to TV ratings in their expansion-to-ten-films decision: more films, more film-interested viewers (higher viewership, higher network payment to the Academy) eager to watch in the Awards show: I have a thought...why not let all of everybody's You-Tube films be considered? Imagine how many 'hits' the Academy Award website would have? Or turn the Academy Awards auditioning and final voting into "American Idol"? Simon C. would have a field-day with some of the films aleady made!
Freedom has moved toward democratic license; artistic specialness toward anarchy. and the Network/Academy move toward moneygrubbing marketplace has leveled the Best Picture playing field toward one of dirt, rocks and shards of glass.
Some critics are arguing that that will dilute the quality of the films being nominated.
I argue: Nonsense. The quality of the films being nominated the last few years have already been diluted.
It probably will take ten films to find two, much less five, worthy films; especially in today's era of either cheaply made, poorly structured and bizarrely theme-ed films (let's follow their proponents and kindly call them 'art' films), or films made for testosterone teens who crave violence and unadulterated sex (notice the word 'adult' in the middle of the last adjective: maybe it meant in the old days the 'adult' was part of judgement) or fixated adolescents who refuse to leave the pre-pubescent cartoon phase of their lives.
This, of course, does not even address the Academy's financial whoring to TV ratings in their expansion-to-ten-films decision: more films, more film-interested viewers (higher viewership, higher network payment to the Academy) eager to watch in the Awards show: I have a thought...why not let all of everybody's You-Tube films be considered? Imagine how many 'hits' the Academy Award website would have? Or turn the Academy Awards auditioning and final voting into "American Idol"? Simon C. would have a field-day with some of the films aleady made!
Freedom has moved toward democratic license; artistic specialness toward anarchy. and the Network/Academy move toward moneygrubbing marketplace has leveled the Best Picture playing field toward one of dirt, rocks and shards of glass.
posted by Cliff Osmond at 4:27 PM
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