Zimmer Time wrote:

LelekPL wrote: Going back to the topic (since I feel responsible for derailing the discussion):

I honestly don't care about the amount of nominees the Oscars will have the next year. They can have 5 or 10, it doesn't matter to me really. When they changed it to "more than 5" I was actually excited because I thought it's a chance for more quality mainstream films to be recognized... but that didn't help as we already have seen. Over the last couple of years only 2 films took advantage of more nominees - District 9 (I still don't understand how it got nominated) and Inception. Avatar would have been nominated either way knowing the Academy's love for Cameron.

So it's not like it added more variety to the Oscars. I mean it's good that they highlight more lesser known films that are mostly really good but actually no matter how many films they nominate, there will always be a debate whether this movie should have been nominated or shouldn't; what movies were snubbed and what weren't. If they decide to go with 5 nominees, there will be these two films that definitely shouldn't be on the list and a couple that should have been instead. The same goes with 10 nominees. It really doesn't matter. We will always argue and disagree with the Academy's choice.

And yes, Nolan would have a statistically better chance... but Spielberg didn't need it in the past. Kubrick didn't need it. David Lean didn't need it. I think someday Nolan will win, maybe much like Spielberg, after YEARS of being snubbed, and it won't matter how many nominated films there will be that year. All he needs is the right film and the right campaign and the right connections in the industry at that time.

As for People's Choice Awards or imdb awards... I wouldn't be too quick to decide that the audience awards should be the ones that matter. Mostly because most of the audience doesn't watch that many movies. How can Marvel fans say that GotG was the best film of the year when they haven't even seen Boyhood, Whiplash or The Grand Budapest Hotel? How can Transformers or 50 Shades of Grey fans be treated seriously?

Audience awards would allow people who see 10-15 new releases a year (and that's the VAST MAJORITY of viewers) to decide what film was the best one out of all the movies that year! It would be a popularity award. I think Oscars are much better than that. So no, I don't think that audience's votes are more indicative of what was the best movie. You would need only the votes of people who actually see A LARGE number of films. At least 52 new releases (one for each week) and that's the lowest amount I could go. A 100 would be even better with the amount of films that are made in Hollywood and around the world right now.

So maybe the critics? They watch a lot of movies and are usually passionate about films. But then again, we know that their recommendations aren't always the most popular. Many people accuse them of being too snobby, having too much prejudice, too populist or too biased.

So my solution? Just don't care about the awards. Create your own amongst your friends or be happy with what you have seen and what you liked. The Oscars don't tell you what movie was ACTUALLY the best one that year - it's just Hollywood's way of patting themselves on the back, saying good job for a good film, not fucking anything up during campaigning (not being racist, sexist or in any other political way insensitive) and being liked in the industry. That's it.

Sure, it helps lesser known films get more publicity and that's the only good thing about them. But Interstellar doesn't really need them. It was a hit and a great movie. History will only tell which movies will be remembered as classics. Whether it's Birdman or Interstellar, a statue doesn't matter. Just like it didn't matter when "Oliver Twist!" won and "2001: A Space Oddyssey" wasn't even nominated.

Brilliant post.

BlairCo wrote:The score for The Grand Budapest Hotel is cheerful and perfectly matches the tone with the film; in fact, I think it would be a very different film without it. I barely noticed the score when I watched The Theory of Everything. The Imitation Game had a really nice score as well, but none came close to the creativity or wonderment that Interstellar had.