Wasn't the Academy awards originally conceived as a kind of self-contained movie industry recognition thing?
Like, cinematographers would all vote for what film had the best cinematography sound guys for which film had the best sound production, etc?
It seems that somewhere along the way, the public decided that if a film won lots of Oscars, then it must be some indication that it's a very good film, which has been proven numerous times is definitely not always the case.
Fuck knows what the criteria really is these days. It feels massively insincere, though. A bit like the Red Dot Design Awards. Or Eurovision.
(, Mon 13 Mar 2023, 22:06, Reply)
there a fuck ton of members, i think almost 2000, and it's by nomination of two existing members so it was a bit of club
in the last five years they've imposed quotas for women and 'people of color', but given that they only let in 2 or three dozen each year I don't think the overall makeup of the Academy being old white male industry types has changed. They kicked out Cosby, but they also kicked out Wienstein so balance was maintained.
But I think being a mostly liberal group the #oscarssowhite might have stung a bit, because it was valid. so when face with choosing say, between Blanchetts tour de force in Tar and Yeoh good performance, I reckon there might have something in the back of their mind thinking "we'll get a lot of good headlines if we opt for yeoh, and maybe people will stop calling us a bunch of racist cunts". not in a conspiracy way, just human nature and people not wanting to be seen as the bad guy in a low stakes choice
And that's how it panned out. The headline in my paper today was "First South-East Asian Actor to win best Actor". Not "yeoh wins award". Maybe I'm cynical. Any artistic award is going to be debatable and subjective, and theres been worse choices.
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cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Mon 13 Mar 2023, 23:17,
Reply)
I'm chuffed for Michelle Yeoh, as she comes across as genuinely warm and lovely. But I've never been a massive fan of her acting.
She's always felt a bit wooden and monotone to me, which is probably a bit of an unfair criticism considering that English isn't her native tongue and she's not nearly as hard work as Hiam Abbass in that regard.
I've been meaning to watch EEAAO for bloody ages, but allocating 140 minutes to sit down and watch a film is proving difficult currently. So I'll reserve judgement until then, but I'd be very surprised if her performance is superior to Andrea Riseborough's.
(, Tue 14 Mar 2023, 12:36, Reply)
