In August of 2018, controversy arose surrounding the announcement that an award for “Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film” would be given out at the 2019 Academy Awards. Although the “Popular Film” Oscar did not live long enough to be awarded, backlash from academy members, journalists, and moviegoers alike caused the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to pull the category less than a month later. Criticism came from all directions, with the award being seen as an effort by an increasingly elitist Hollywood establishment to pander to a blockbuster audience in the face of flagging awards-show ratings.
Much of this controversy stemmed from the name itself: the term “popular” suggested to many that those films nominated for the traditional Best Picture category were, by contrast, unpopular. Seen this way, the award would be something of a slap in the face to those creators of art cinema wishing to market their work to a wider audience. Conversely, some took issue with setting popular film in contrast to art film on the grounds that a film’s commercial success should not be seen as a mark against its art status. In an attempt to satisfy moviegoers and critics alike, the Oscars, it seemed, could satisfy no one.
Just over a year later, we may be on our way to a reprisal of a controversy never properly put to rest. In 2018, Marvel Studios’ Black Panther grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide and garnered widespread critical acclaim. Its commercial and critical success was generally viewed as the impetus for the creation of the Popular Film category. After the category was withdrawn, Black Panther earned a Best Picture nomination but did not take home the award itself, much to the dismay of its broad fan base. In the lead-up to the 2020 Oscars, we are once again saddled with the task of figuring out what to do with a film that troubles academy categorizations, this time in the form of the comic-book-movie-turned-psychological-thriller, Joker.
Joker soared to acclaim at its film festival releases in Venice and Toronto and went on to major success when released to the public. Since then, its popularity has not waned, becoming the first R-rated movie to gross over $1 billion. At the same time, Joker has been praised by critics for its compelling and nuanced depictions of mental illness and socioeconomic inequality. Still, Oscar predictors—yes, that is a real, full-time job—even four months before the show airs believe that record-breaking box-office numbers and widespread critical acclaim may not be enough to propel the film to a Best Picture nomination.
Here I must “out” myself as someone who believes that Joker is not a film that deserves a Best Picture nomination, and nor did Black Panther a year ago. These films are innovative and exciting, and they bring a higher quality of filmmaking to global audiences than is normally seen in blockbuster hits, but they are by no means the best films of their respective years. They shouldn’t be viewed as such, but nor should they be ignored altogether by a body that claims to represent the Hollywood industry. In seeking the middle ground between the highest possible recognition and no recognition at all, our best option might be to give the Popular Film category another shot.
To those who might reasonably be apprehensive at the concept of an Oscar for “Achievement in Popular Film”, I offer the story of the Best Animated Feature category as a model. In 2002, in light of an increase in the production of animated features, the first Oscar in the category was presented to DreamWorks’ smash-hit Shrek. Prior to receiving the award, there was great disappointment over the fact that Shrek was not nominated for Best Picture, with many citing the newly created category as a means of barring animated films from major awards. Since 2002, however, this complaint has mostly been put to rest as a result of the nominations of Up and Toy Story 3 for Best Picture in 2009 and 2010, respectively. A film could indeed receive an award in the animation category and still be considered for Best Picture.
By now we’ve gotten used to the idea of an award for animated features, and few believe that the award’s existence is a mark against animation’s status as art. Given enough time, the same could happen with blockbusters. As more and more movies are made to bring in massive global audiences, we need to realize that blockbusters, like animated movies, are created within unique production contexts, and as such deserve the opportunity to be considered under different criteria. Blockbusters are made with vastly different goals in mind, and we owe it to these films to first consider them on the terms in which they were created. Taking a closer look at last year’s Best Picture nominees, I challenge anyone to find a set of common criteria by which Black Panther could be measured against the slow, thoughtful, black-and-white passion project that was Roma. The short answer is that there isn’t one, and that’s not a bad thing.
Someday soon, however, a big blockbuster will come along that is enjoyed by millions the world over and is, at the same time, impossible to ignore as a work of art. When that day comes, I will happily see it take home two Oscars: one for Best Picture, the other for Best Popular Film. Because what that means is that the film will have succeeded on two planes of creativity, and that should be recognized. It’s hard to get people to sympathize with the massive, moneymaking production companies that make these movies—that, I understand—but it’s not about them. When we talk about film—and, as flawed as they are, the Oscars are one of the ways we talk about film—we should be talking about what people, all people, are actually going to see. The Oscars are a long way from doing that, but this is a good place to start.
Comments are closed.