The "importance" of the Oscars and awards shows

[Big Magilla]

Could we return to an era where prestige blockbusters, from epics like Lawrence Of Arabia to films like The Godfather and even sci-fi films like E.T., are at least fairly common?

I think they nominate blockbusters fairly often now: Gravity, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, Arrival, Life of Pi, Dunkirk, Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody and Joker are all huge hits

Hits, yes, but not instantly loved classics that endure.

[anonymous1980]

Could we return to an era where prestige blockbusters, from epics like Lawrence Of Arabia to films like The Godfather and even sci-fi films like E.T., are at least fairly common?

I think they nominate blockbusters fairly often now: Gravity, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, Arrival, Life of Pi, Dunkirk, Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody and Joker are all huge hits

[Big Magilla]

In time, perhaps.

[Greg]

We seem headed in that direction anyway. Prestige films will still get made even if the only way to see them is through streaming.

There's still enough prestige left to winning an Oscar despite the declining interest of the masses. I'm not sure if the other televised awards shows will keep going. They could fall like dominoes after the Globes, which would only serve to bolster the importance of the Oscars.

Maybe we get to a point where the only Oscar nominees for Best Picture will be blockbusters which will dominate the technical awards, maybe even Best Director, but the smaller films will continue to dominate the acting and writing awards.

Good movies may become even harder to find, but they won't get completely lost any time soon.

Could we return to an era where prestige blockbusters, from epics like Lawrence Of Arabia to films like The Godfather and even sci-fi films like E.T., are at least fairly common?

[Sabin]

I already wrote about the Golden Globes elsewhere. I'll say that the problems with each of these two groups are different. The HFPA has a problem with diversity. The Academy might have an over-emphasis on it. The former is a problem with membership. The latter is almost entirely circumstantial. Remember in 2019 when the Academy ignored movies about race and nominated almost exclusively white affairs + Parasite?

This is a one-off. Next year, they'll be back. Probably with Billy Crystal.

I do think the Academy Awards play a role in incentivizing important films but while the importance of the Academy Awards may be diminishing as film, the industry's importance on social justice is increasing. Also, streaming platforms are dishing out big bucks for them mitigating risk.

[Big Magilla]

We seem headed in that direction anyway. Prestige films will still get made even if the only way to see them is through streaming.

There's still enough prestige left to winning an Oscar despite the declining interest of the masses. I'm not sure if the other televised awards shows will keep going. They could fall like dominoes after the Globes, which would only serve to bolster the importance of the Oscars.

Maybe we get to a point where the only Oscar nominees for Best Picture will be blockbusters which will dominate the technical awards, maybe even Best Director, but the smaller films will continue to dominate the acting and writing awards.

Good movies may become even harder to find, but they won't get completely lost any time soon.

[anonymous1980]

This whole Golden Globes cancellation got me thinking. The Oscars and awards shows in general are getting a lot of negative press lately. Some people want them to simply disband and stop doing them.

But what if that happens?

I just realized that the Oscars and by extension a lot of these movie awards shows are among the only reasons grown-up, original and non-franchise films get a significant theatrical run and theatrical distribution at all. Without the Oscars and the promise of prestige, studios will stop investing in them. Independent and arthouse films will have more trouble getting to a wider audience, if at all. Less people will be enticed to step out of their comfort zone and try an indie/arthouse/foreign film and just be satisfied with watching the MCU for the nth time. Soon enough, the only films that will be in cinemas will be the huge franchise films while everything else will be shoved as one big pile of "streaming" content, mostly lost in the shuffle.

But I don't know. Maybe someone has a different perspective on this.