91st Annual Academy Awards

[redfirebird2008]

For me personally, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was the most satisfying Best Picture win of the last 25 years. If it were up to me, all three Lord of the Rings films would have won their respective years, but I digress. After that, I'd probably say No Country for Old Men.

The worst is unquestionably Crash. The other big offenders are Forrest Gump, Shakespeare in Love, and A Beautiful Mind.

Slumdog getting 8 Oscars was pretty ridiculous. I didn't mind it winning Best Picture, but there were a number of categories it had no business winning and the voters got caught up in the "feel good" aspect of that movie during an economic crisis.

 

[Boom]

Slumdog getting 8 Oscars was pretty ridiculous. I didn't mind it winning Best Picture, but there were a number of categories it had no business winning and the voters got caught up in the "feel good" aspect of that movie during an economic crisis.

The entirety of 2008 is a wash for me because of The Dark Knight and Christopher Nolan getting snubbed. I never expected them to win had they been nominated, but the fact that they weren't sullied both categories. Call it sour grapes.

Also, Mickey Rourke should have beat Sean Penn.

 

[redfirebird2008]

Mickey Rourke definitely should have won.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Speaking of Slumdog Millionaire, the leading lady in that movie hasn't done much of anything since then except Mowgli correct?

 

[Boom]

The King's Speech and The Artist are too undeserving wins too, IMO. Especially the former considering it had a lot of better competition.

How could I have forgotten The King's Speech winning over The Social Network? Ridiculous. The Social Network is as close to a perfect movie as I've ever seen, and it's relevant now more than ever.

The Artist was an okay winner. Frankly, I'm annoyed that Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy wasn't even nominated, but I have found that that movie is not for everybody. Take Shelter also deserved a nomination.

 

[flickchick85]

The Artist is one of my favorite winners of the decade, tbh. It’s so damn re-watchable for me.

 

[Kane52630]

The Artist is one of my favorite winners of the decade, tbh. It’s so damn re-watchable for me.

I thought I was the only who still enjoyed The Artist.

 

[TheVileOne]

I still think Toy Story 3 should've been nominated and possibly won Best Picture.

But that's the thing about the Oscars. It's all opinion really.

 

[jmc]

I remember even as a 10 year old being pissed off that Shakespeare in Love beat Saving Private Ryan.

But does anyone else feel like the Best Picture title isn’t as prestigious as it used to be? Movies like The Silence of the Lambs, Schindler’s List, Titanic, and Return of the King stayed in the consciousness of the general public for years after they were released. Take this decade’s winners for example. The Artist, Argo, Birdman, Spotlight, even last year’s The Shape of Water. Nobody talks about them. It’s like they fade into obscurity the day after the awards ceremony. Moonlight is probably the most popular one and even then that’s mostly attributed to the whole La-La Land mixup when it won.

Look at this list of nominees between just 1990 and 1995, their box office adjusted for inflation:

Dances With Wolves - $781m
Ghost - $970m
The Silence of the Lambs - $522
Beauty and the Beast - $783m
JFK - $376m
Unforgiven - $293m
The Fugitive - $639m
A Few Good Men - $422m
Forrest Gump - $1.1B
Pulp Fiction - $361m
Four Weddings and a Funeral - $415m
Braveheart - $346m
Apollo 13 - $355m
Babe - $418m

Of the 30 films nominated between 90-95, 14 of the films made over $250m in today's money. Which means about half of all the BP nominees were really popular movies. But that's just the tip of the iceberg for the films in the 90's and early 2000's. Here's the comparison to the last 6 years, with twice as many nominees.

La La Land - $446
Dunkirk - $529
Get Out - $255
Mad Max 4 - $378m
The Martian - $630m
The Revenant - $533m
American Sniper - $547m
Gravity - $732m
Wolf Of Wall Street - $392m
American Hustle - $251m
Lincoln - $275m
Life of Pie - $609m
Les Miserable - $441m
Django Unchained - $425m

It's the same number of popular nominees, but with 60 BP nominations, meaning only a quarter of those nominations were movies that were really popular. But, the question that starts to emerge when looking at these figures is how many of these films would have actually been nominated had the field been only 5 nominations for BP?

Here's an interesting stat. After Lord of the Ring won in 2003, between 04-08, the year TDK was overlooked, the last year before expansion. Of the 20 nominees only 3 films grossed more than $250m adjusted for inflation -

Juno - $279m
Slumdog Millionaire - $439m
Benjamin Button - $389m

So, something happened with the voting in between LOTR winning and TDK, because before that popular movies were a regular fixture on the nominees list. In those years we had Spider-Man 2, The Incredibles, War of the Worlds, King Kong, Batman Begins, Casino Royale, The Devil Wares Prada, The Borne Ultimatum, just to name a few popular movies that would have been seriously in contention only a few years earlier. So, what the hell happened?

 

[Kane52630]

Accused Rapist Bryan Singer Could Make Over $40M for 'Bohemian Rhapsody'

 

[samsnee]

Speaking of Slumdog Millionaire, the leading lady in that movie hasn't done much of anything since then except Mowgli correct?

She was in the Planet of Apes movie with Franco but I haven’t seen her in much else stateside. Same with the male lead. He was in The Lion a couple of years ago and had some buzz but nothing much since.

 

[terry78]

All I remember was that she was hot.

 

[Drizzle]

I still think Toy Story 3 should've been nominated and possibly won Best Picture.

But that's the thing about the Oscars. It's all opinion really.

Toy Story 3 was nominated for Best Picture.

 

[Schlosser85]

She was in the Planet of Apes movie with Franco but I haven’t seen her in much else stateside. Same with the male lead. He was in The Lion a couple of years ago and had some buzz but nothing much since.

Dev Patel was in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and it’s sequel and is in the upcoming Mumbai terrorist attack movie with Armie Hammer.

 

[TheVileOne]

Toy Story 3 was nominated for Best Picture.

It should've won. There wasn't a better movie released that year.

Zootopia (2016)

Zootopia should've been nominated as well.

Best Animated Feature is nothing more than a glass ceiling. Just like that "Best Popular Movie" category that got thrown around.

 

[CB Fan]

I thought How to Train Your Dragon was better but I know that’s unpopular opinion lol.

Zootopia DEFINITELY should’ve been nominated for BP

 

[TheVileOne]

I thought How to Train Your Dragon was better but I know that’s unpopular opinion lol.

Zootopia DEFINITELY should’ve been nominated for BP

I think the first two How to Train Your Dragon films are excellent. IMHO, films shouldn't be overlooked for Best Picture just because they are sequels or animated, or for being populist entertainment. But let's be honest, they often are.

 

[kvz5]

I could be wrong but wasn’t Dev nominated for Lion?

 

[jmc]

He was. Good film, great performance.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Yeah, Dev Patel's actually had a pretty good career.

 

[Drizzle]

It should've won. There wasn't a better movie released that year.

I'll agree with you there, but I also would have accepted Inception or The Social Network winning over The King's Speech. That one was probably the most undeserving win of this decade.

 

[TheVileOne]

I'll agree with you there, but I also would have accepted Inception or The Social Network winning over The King's Speech. That one was probably the most undeserving win of this decade.

Very fair. I think The Dark Knight easily could've received more award recognition than it did. But once again, there's a glass ceiling usually when it comes to sequels, comic book superhero films, animated films and films seen as populist entertainment. Not always but there usually is.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Look at this list of nominees between just 1990 and 1995, their box office adjusted for inflation:

So, something happened with the voting in between LOTR winning and TDK, because before that popular movies were a regular fixture on the nominees list. In those years we had Spider-Man 2, The Incredibles, War of the Worlds, King Kong, Batman Begins, Casino Royale, The Devil Wares Prada, The Borne Ultimatum, just to name a few popular movies that would have been seriously in contention only a few years earlier. So, what the hell happened?

Well, for one, inflation isn't fair. Who knows what all those films in the 90s would've made had they had the competition in today's market.

The world is different. You can stream anything at anytime. Hell, Roma was released to Netflix this year and that's a Best Picture nominee. Internet and video games and so many other things take people's time.

If you wanted a bootleg of a movie, you'd have to go to the streets and find a VHS tape of poor quality. Today you log on and in two seconds have access to whatever you want.

There are way too many problems bringing inflation into the equation.

 

[samsnee]

Eh I wouldn’t say Zootopia is best picture worthy. It’s follows the same tropes as most other animated movies where two very different personalities team up and discover they aren’t so different after all (see Pixar movies).

 

[MadderMaximus]

That's why I don't like looking at inflation adjustments either. Sure, Gone With The Wind adjusts to the biggest, but back then, movies can run for years and there was very little entertainment competition. We're at an age of now-now-now and everything either uploads to streaming incredibly fast, and are gone from theatres in 2-3 months, if they even get a wide release.