This Sunday the Oscars will spend a lot of time telling us that the films nominated represent the best and brightest of World Cinema. That is a lie and it has always been a lie and it will always be a lie.
You don’t have to look far into foreign films to see that most of them are completely ignored by the Academy. This shouldn’t be an issue except for that troublesome “Best Foreign Film” category. Upon learning of this category, one might naturally assume that ALL foreign films would be in competition. As much of the Academy’s logic, that’s a joke. Only a few films are considered and these are generally films that have some appeal to a US audience.
And then of course you have foreign films somehow being in competition with US films. “Wait a minute…” you might say. “If there’s a foreign film category, why put a foreign film in competition with US films?” Good question. The Academy’s answer?
Academy Logic. That’s it. Which is to say no logic at all.
This is made all the more ridiculous when you consider that 99% of films genuinely made in the US are never seriously considered.
See, the Academy isn’t really about promoting excellence in film. It’s about promoting movies. Specifically promoting the movies that appeal to a very general audience.
That’s right, the Academy has gone the way of most televised awards shows. It’s no longer a way to promote, encourage, and motivate excellence in film art. (Assuming it ever really was.) It’s just another marketing tool.
The good news is that a dinosaur like the Academy might do little to help actual independent film, but it also does little to hurt it. Independent filmmakers (a term that includes all narrative, documentary, feature length, and short visual media productions) have many of the same struggles as in the past; financing and other resources. But internet streaming, cheap video and audio capture hardware, cheap video editing, assembly, and rendering software have opened up the creative spirit in ways the Academy never could.
But then, that was never the real goal of the Academy. It’s goal, the ugly goal no one wanted to talk about, is the same goal of all of the National awards shows; Mutual Masturbation. (ok, Circle Jerk is really a funnier term)
It’s super rich people telling each other how great they are. Some of them might really be great but that’s kind of beside the point.
If you’re not one of the super rich and obviously talented few you might see this as a grand and glorious waste of your time and money. (Cause you’re ultimately paying for it by buying, renting, or paying to consume media in any fashion.)
Yeah, you’re paying for it, all of it, and it’s not cheap.
Many of us opted out a long time ago.
