The Oscars 2016

[Fierce_LiNk]

Has anybody else been keeping up with this? Could it be DiCaprio's year, at last?

 

I guess a lot of the focus seems to be on the lack of nominations for black actors and actresses in the big categories. What's everyone else's view on this?

[killthenet]

Looking at the nominees for Best Actor, a solid case could be made for any of them getting it really. Obviously DiCaprio has won every other award for 'The Revenant' so you'd think he'd be a shoe in for the Oscar, but the Academy never do things the normal way. Like I said there's a solid case for them to give it to anyone of the nominees, even Matt Damon because it's the kind of left-field choice the Academy like to make.

 

On the subject of the lack of diversity, I think some of the complaints have come to light because those individuals feel slighted that they haven't been nominated, in the case of Jada Pinkett-Smith for example she seems to have come out against the Academy purely because her husband hasn't been nominated. As Ice Cube pointed out last week on 'The Graham Norton Show' it's not something that people should really think too much about - "it's like complaining about not having enough icing on your cake", why worry about what one awards body thinks about your film if the audience response is overwhelmingly positive.

 

Saying that though, there are some really strange omissions. Idris Elba has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for every other award, so it's really strange that he hasn't been given an Oscar nod. Similarly with Will Smith his performance in 'Concussion has been acknowledged by most of the other awards bodies. A similar thing happened the other year where Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela in 'Long Walk To Freedom' and David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr in 'Selma' were overlooked in the acting categories, when their performances had been lauded elsewhere. I don't think there is a concerted effort to ignore minority actors and directors, but there does certainly seem to be a real problem with diversity among members of the Academy.

 

America is a strange dichotomy really, they seem to be able to discuss issues of race and ethnicity more openly than we do in Europe, but they can also be much more sensitive when it comes to certain issues, for instance I don't think there would ever be such a row over a lack of diversity at British award ceremonies. As much as the divide between rich and poor is growing in the UK, it is a divide that is defined more so by race in the US than it is in the UK, with the percentage of African American's living below the breadline being much larger than that of White American's. Obviously there have many notable situations involving the negative treatment of African American's by the police over the past couple of years, so the lack of diversity within the Oscar nominations could just be a reflection of the serious problems within American society.

[pratty]

Black actors have won awards in the recent past, why would the Academy suddenly be racist now?

[bob]

I do think it's a problem that the Academy is 70% old white men, but this doesn't mean the awards are racist. I saw someone add up the number of black winners for the four acting Oscars since 1995, and the result was about 13% of winners were black. This is the same as the proportion of black people in the US. It's the other minorities that don't get a look in.

[Cube]

The Oscars just make me feel completely out of touch with films. I'd only heard of two of the "Best Picture" films (Mad Max and The Martian) and I haven't even seen those.

[S.C.G]

The Oscars just make me feel completely out of touch with films. I'd only heard of two of the "Best Picture" films (Mad Max and The Martian) and I haven't even seen those.

 

Who is this "Oscar" we speak of?

 

What is film?

 

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But seriously, I completely understand as I also don't tend to watch many modern films at all these days due to the deluge of dirge which gets released these days.

 

Even when I do want to see a new film, which doesn't happen that often, I will rarely go to the cinema to see it due to the price and the annoyance of this inconsiderate age we live in making it nigh on impossible to enjoy a film without a stupid amount of interruptions let alone just one or two which personally I deem inacceptable unless there's a really good reason for it.

 

Of course, by all means we should give the decent films and everyone involved in them their dues, I can appreciate that certain films might be considered as being an amazing achievement but at the same time are just not for me; more and more though I think it's rare to see anyone get an award for films these days and to think that they actually genuinely deserved it.

 

I'm more than happy to catch up with past greats which are easily available to buy though for enjoyment at home, indeed I'm keen to watch films from the start of their history, all the way through to present day if they are interesting and if they haven't already been spoiled for me - another dislike of this modern age - as when you watch then in the comfort of your own home I find that you tend to connect with that film more, the cinema to me just feels so cold and disconnected due to the amount of distractions which shouldn't be there and sub-par screen setting up at best.

 

The awards are incredibly commercial these days, as is everything to a point but it's nice when we get that rare moment when someone actually gets an award and genuinely deserves it, especially if they show genuine gratitude for it due to being in the business for the love of the art and not just for the money, making it just another job...

 

So in short, I'll catch the highlights the following day after catching up with some classic films as I wait for the few titles I want to see to come out in readable disc format.