The Oscars: My Rant

My first post on The Oscars was my personal picks for this years categories, based on what I've seen so far. For this post I wanted to take a little artistic liberty and rant about how I feel about the Academy, and a couple of films I feel were snubbed for specific reasons.



The Academy Awards. When I was a child, the showcase was the pinnacle of success within the film industry. The more involved I got in the industry, and the older I got, the more I realized that the Oscar was nothing more than a status symbol for the elite. Now, whether or not I want an Oscar is another story, but the fact remains that over the years the award has lost much of its prestige.

There were many great films in 2011, many of which have been nominated for awards. One of my favorite films of the year, The Artist, is even up for Best Picture as well as many other awards. However, the Academy strikes again, snubbing two of my favorite actors and my favorite film of the year.

First off if Steve McQueen's newest film Shame, which stars the amazing Michael Fassbender in an extremely difficult role. The film is all about a man with one of the most difficult addictions to write about; sex addiction. Everyone can write about drugs and alcohol but writing about the most primal human addiction is one of the hardest and most taboo subjects today. Shame wasn't nominated for anything, even after receiving rave reviews for both the actual film and Fassbender's performance. The reason why the film wasn't nominated for anything is simply because it is rated NC-17 due to the subject matter.

There was a time when films like Midnight Cowboy won numerous awards even with an X rating. This was a time when the Academy stood for more than the greedy ideals they preach today. Today, if you are not backed by numerous financial big shots, you have no chance at ever making any sort of dent in the Academy Awards.

My favorite film of 2011 was Drive, starring the amazing Ryan Gosling, who was also snubbed at the 2011 Academy Awards. Gosling has received a ton of praise and numerous other rewards for his performance, and many critics have said that Drive was the film of the year. However, for some reason, Drive wasn't nominated and nor was Gosling.

All in all, the Oscars have lost so much of its prestige over the years that I feel the best way to get back at the Academy is to beat them at their own game. We as filmmakers need to create better films that will challenge the Academy and change their views.