Column: Comedies go unrecognized at Oscars
Published Nov. 16, 2010
My favorite season of the year is just around the corner. Oh, yes, my friends: It’s about to be awards season. Every year when awards season comes around, I border on giddy. The showing of elongated movie trailers (which are like crack to me), the acceptance speeches, all the fashion...
I watch all of the shows, and even though I may get bored by the third hour of awards no one cares about, I always wait to see the last few awards. With movie awards, the last few tend to be Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture. Who doesn’t love seeing the best films and performances of the year summed up into about 20 to 30 minutes? It shows you what films are worth watching — or, if you’re lazy, it shows the ones you should pretend you saw to seem cultured. But as for whether they're really "best of the year," I recently began to wonder if that is really true. I also question if the people who control the selection process really know what is the best — or what was just the most popular.
Award shows are typically headed by a committee. The best example of this: the Academy Awards. The Academy consists of more than 6,000 members who have thrived in the film industry. This can be actors and actresses but also those behind the scenes. It is a very prestigious organization, and it is quite the honor to be asked to join. The Academy decides all the Oscar nominations and ultimately also decides who will win.
This makes it difficult for the system to not be flawed. Over the years they have received plenty of criticism, and I definitely don’t think those critics are wrong. The bias can be seen all over the place, and sometimes it can just be upsetting. A perfect example of this is the Academy’s lack of recognition for one of my favorite actors, Don Cheadle. He has had some of the best performances of all time, especially in Hotel Rwanda, but he seems to be overlooked. He might openly criticize the Academy, but as one of the most accomplished actors of all time, I think he deserves a little more recognition from the pretentious bunch.
Yes, there is a lot of bias when it comes to the actors or those who make the film, but also there is bias with the movie genres they select as the best. The ones they pick are always of the drama genre. Comedy is not ever selected as a possibility for best picture. Granted, some dark comedies are selected, but those always have some sort of twisted dramatic element to complement the hints of comedy. This issue probably upsets me the most, because I believe comedies take a lot of intelligence to create. I’m not talking about Scary Movie 27, but those meant to be strictly humorous while making you think a bit. Woody Allen and the Coen brothers are a few that have been recognized, but that is certainly not enough. Not all comedies have repressed housewives killing themselves with a homemade abortion, but they certainly take talent to produce.
The Academy is a group of biased individuals who are not the end-all-be-all when it comes to picking the best films. Does that mean I’m going to stop watching the Oscars? Absolutely not. The movies that are picked are still spectacular films and definitely worth watching. But don't restrict your viewing to what the Academy thinks is the best. There are so many films out there that should be seen. You never know, maybe Judd Apatow’s predictable awkward-guy-getting-a-hot-girl plot will take the Oscars by storm.