Sunday, February 7th, 2010
What makes a film a ‘Best Picture’?
Described as the most important of the Oscars, Best Picture always seems to be the most contoversial - probably because it’s the vaguest in terms of what it actually is. And this year’s selection is certainly a mixed (as well as much larger) bag.
So what does ‘Best Picture’ mean to you? When discussing with friends, I blithely claimed ‘You shouldn’t be up for Best Picture if you’re not up for Best Original/Adapted Screenplay’ which is, of course, mostly bollocks …Mostly (see how I steered the conversation round to James Cameron there?)
In terms of Avatar, there hasn’t been a Best Picture nominee not to receive a Screenplay nomination since, oh, Titanic. The James Cameron conspiracy continues 
But Titanic wasn’t the first. Star Wars was nominated for Best Picture without a screenplay nom but lost out to Annie Hall (which then went on to win both). But I don’t understand how you can compare Woody Allen and George Lucas (beyond arguing that both their earlier work was better) for making the film of the year.
It’s curious that they’ve taken the number of nominees back up to 10. While it’s nice for certain films to be acknowledged, should you be nominated if you haven’t really got a chance of winning? (But then do the Oscars actually mean much beyond the personal choices of the Academy and possibly a bit of Hollywood politics?)
So is Best Picture the film that’s better than the sum of its parts? The film the Academy wants to be remembered for choosing? An award for taking film in a new direction or against the trends of the last few years? I’d say it can be all of those things. But is that varied message why we sometimes think, in past years, that the Academy clearly got it ‘wrong’?
And who do you want to see win Best Picture 2010? And what the hell makes it ‘Best Picture’ anyway?
February 8th, 2010 at 11:22 am
Mike Ritchie said:
I always think it’s funny that there even is a ‘Best Picture’ as it’s such a personal choice. Of course what they really mean is ‘(we think this is the) Best Picture’ and that’s fair enough, as I’m sure they are an experienced bunch!
Films are so diverse and individual, there’s no winning formula for creating a classic. A lot of what makes a good film to me is based on instinct, similar to how we work out if we like a person or not. So maybe this is the only way the Academy can choose their best picture each year. There’s no right or wrong choice, it’s just what worked for them the most, that particular year.
~ Mike
February 9th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Ian said:
I think it should be a film that has excelled in all areas (screenplay, direction, editing, sound, music etc etc) and is greater than the sum of its parts.
I don’t understand how Avatar can be in this category as to me it doesn’t fulfill that criteria. The music was cliche-ridden (also another example of Horner re-using his own material), the sound was technically perfectly done but rather boring, little characterisation (especially the main character) and the narrative was merely a sci-fi rehash of Pocahontas. My final problem with the film was that every aspect was subservient to the, albeit stunning, imagery.
To me, a classic and brilliant film this is not. A visually amazing piece of thrilling popcorn cinema? Spot on!
Ian
February 10th, 2010 at 7:32 am
john said:
Quite. I really don’t want to to start a ‘damn you, Avatar’ trend but I find that there’s a lot of bandwagonry when it comes to films sweeping the Oscars.
For example, it took me a long time to see Slumdog Millionaire. I was genuinely interested in seeing it to begin with and then I just started rebelling ince it started winning stupid loads of Awards so didn’t watch it until it was on TV recently (and thought it was excellent, mind you)
I can’t really decide whether it was the Best Picture of last year but thought it was ridiculous that the academy voters gave all of the technical awards that they clearly don’t understand to Slumdog too.
As excellent an adapted and directed film as it was, did it *really* have the Best Sound Mixing of that year? Especially when, amongst others, it was up against Wall-E?
I dunno.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:58 am
john said:
Ah. Have just seen that Empire Magazine have done a feature on every Best Picture winner ever and whether it deserved to. Pretty Interesting.
http://www.empireonline.com/features/oscar-best-picture-winners/
Interesting what they say about the backlast to American Beauty - I wonder how much difference seeing (and hopefully enjoying) the film before all the Awards ceremonies affects your opinion.
February 11th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Ian said:
Yeah, last years award for sound was sick and wrong! WallE has the most wonderful and interesting sound that I’ve heard in a film for years. Thankfully Ben Burtt’s great work has been awarded many times over *looks lovingly at the WallE model on my desk*
Still haven’t seen Slumdog. To be honest, the premise doesn’t really shout to me to want to watch it so I can’t really comment.