Comments on: 10 Box Office Champs That Are Also the Best Films of Their Year http://blog.spout.com/2008/12/11/10-box-office-champs-that-are-also-the-best-films-of-their-year/ Daily coverage of what is truly interesting in the film world Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:08:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Ekpo Okwong http://blog.spout.com/2008/12/11/10-box-office-champs-that-are-also-the-best-films-of-their-year/#comment-121227 Ekpo Okwong Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:07:00 +0000 http://blog.spout.com/?p=8146#comment-121227 Starting from ET onwards it's been a shame that the Academy(well the old geezer contingent anyway) haven't been able to let go of their genre biases completely. The snubbing of THE DARK KNIGHT(not to mention WALL-E) reminds me what an actual studio head, rival to Disney/Pixar, actually said when he was told TOY STORY wasn't considered to be in line for a Best Picture nom due to it's genre. 'Shouldn't a picture which was both the best reviewed of the year as well as the highest grossing one be the exact kind of stuff that should be getting nominated/winning?' If it's a drama (GUMP, RAIN MAN, TITANIC etc) they're perfectly fine with dishing out the top prize to popularity. But when it's sci-fi,action, animated etc unless they've no choice (THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS winning laregely thanks to 1991 being such a poor year for mainstream films and THE RETURN OF THE KING winning because....well they're would've been a riot if it hadn't) they're happy to snub only furthering the belief that the awards have no relevance anymore. Starting from ET onwards it’s been a shame that the Academy(well the old geezer contingent anyway) haven’t been able to let go of their genre biases completely.

The snubbing of THE DARK KNIGHT(not to mention WALL-E) reminds me what an actual studio head, rival to Disney/Pixar, actually said when he was told TOY STORY wasn’t considered to be in line for a Best Picture nom due to it’s genre. ‘Shouldn’t a picture which was both the best reviewed of the year as well as the highest grossing one be the exact kind of stuff that should be getting nominated/winning?’

If it’s a drama (GUMP, RAIN MAN, TITANIC etc) they’re perfectly fine with dishing out the top prize to popularity. But when it’s sci-fi,action, animated etc unless they’ve no choice (THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS winning laregely thanks to 1991 being such a poor year for mainstream films and THE RETURN OF THE KING winning because….well they’re would’ve been a riot if it hadn’t) they’re happy to snub only furthering the belief that the awards have no relevance anymore.

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