Oscars 2016 is about money, not race stupid

History will probably remember Oscars 2016 for just one note of drama. The boycott talk that hounded the buildup weeks could after all be the ceremony’s biggest newsmaker this year. Not much else worth curiosity seems likely to happen when the awards gala takes place at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on February 28 evening (early hours of Monday morning for us in India).

The nominations this year bear the element of predictability that hounded the awards do over the past years and, if anything, the hullabaloo over Blacks being ignored has only helped garner some unusual limelight.

Have the Oscars indeed been racist in ignoring films highlighting coloured people, or the works of Blacks this year? The truth is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does not really care about racism. Take a deeper look at the Best Film category, and you realise as much.

Also read: 50 shades of racism at the Oscars

Humanity wins

To start with, one needs to understand the fact that Oscars are not necessarily about honouring the best of Hollywood. Rather, over the years it has become clear the ceremony is about recognising certain values that drive box-office compatible emotions — of humanity and courage, of political correctness, of hope overcoming despair, and of the victory of good over evil. Oscar voters love stories that celebrate a person’s triumph against all odds.

Among the eight nominees in the Best Film category this year, The Revenant, The Martian, Room and Brooklyn fit that bill in some way or the other as do, not so coincidentally, every nominee in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role would especially seem a frontrunner over the other nominees in the Best Film as well as Actor categories. That’s despite more interesting fare such as Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight and Adam McKay’s The Big Short also being among contenders for Best Film. 

Spotlight on its part would seem too realistic in its projection of a dark side of American society.

Watch Spotlight trailer:

The Big Short is simply too clever a film to fit the Oscar bill. A victory for either film, despite their near flawlessness in creativity, would seem like an outside chance.

Sure, there has been the odd year of departure. The bleak neo-western drama No Country For Old Men won Best Film in 2008. The film was different from what Oscar voters prefer. But that was an exception basically meant to recognise the genius of its makers, the Coen Brothers.

Mainstream mix

As the Oscar flick seriously became an assembly-line product over the years, Miramax was one of the first studios to realise the saleability of that factor. The idea was set to motion primarily by Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein, who realised there was big box-office waiting for films marketed as Oscar contenders. Back then, Weinstein had declared a successful Oscar year could make the difference “between a movie grossing $5 million and $20 million”. Today, the figures would have probably multiplied five times over.

Also read: 5 times Leonardo DiCaprio truly deserved the Oscar

It is a reason why studios have lately also started pitching quality mainstream fare as Ridley Scott’s The Martian starring Matt Damon and George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road as Best Film contenders.

Such films may not win ultimately, but their inclusion at the Oscars serves two purposes. On one hand, a nomination label increases value of the film in question. On the other, nominating blockbusters is Hollywood’s way of regularly reminding us it can make quality commercial films, too.

Watch Max Max: Fury Road trailer:

Also read: Why I'm rooting for Mad Max: Fury Road at the Oscars

Some films make the Best Film cut thanks to the sheer weight of names associated with them. The inclusion of Steven Spielberg’s Bridge Of Spies in the Best Film category is an instance. Spielberg, rightly an eternal favourite at the Oscars, brings in a sort of allure. However, although Bridge Of Spies is undeniably good cinema, Spielberg will probably go into the Oscars this year knowing his latest probably will not win.

Small wonders

Traditionally, every year has also had a small film or two that deservedly get into the Best Film category. Lenny Abrahamson’s Room is this year’s example. These films never win — nomination is the maximum recognition they get. Oscar ritual has it that such small films do manage an award or two in some other category (Brie Larson’s performance in Room, for instance, has already won her Best Actress trophy at every awards gala so far, and she looks likely to repeat the feat at the Oscars, too). 

The Oscars are a part of the grand showcase that Hollywood habitually sets up to show off its films to the world, to garner bigger business in domestic and international markets. Nominations reflect that money-minded attitude and little else. It is an awards gala where over 90 per cent voters are whites anyway, so what did you expect?

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)