The Official 2019 Oscars Nomination Announcements Discussions & Predictions Thread (2 Viewers)

[Carabimero]

Back in the day, I was involved in a live-action short nominated for an Oscar. Our movie had to be shot on 35mm and we had to screen it in a minimum number of theaters on the East and West Coast for a minimum amount of time or it couldn't qualify for Oscar consideration.

Roma did screen in theaters. So I'm not sure what the problem is. Maybe that it premiered on Netflix first?

 

[JimmyO]

What does this Oscar issue have to do with losing sight of who movies are for? I think you're conflating issues here. Oscar qualification is an Academy issue that needs to be address by them, the Academy and has little to do with the general public. Anyhow, I said my piece.

I don't think you want to see me launch into a multi-paragraph rant about who movies are really for, and what motivates filmmakers who truly care about film, and how they deserve to be recognized if their films appeal to the general public.

Just remember that it's the general public that keeps movies in business. The academy and general public may not have a direct connection, but the general public would get along just fine without the academy. The inverse is not true.

 

[TonyD]

Robert I know you said final words but what is your position?
I may not agree with you but I respect your opinions especially
On something like this.

I think it’s silly that a movie has to show on a half dozen screens in a theater in a top city to qualify for an award.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Robert I know you said final words but what is your position?

I think it’s silly that a movie has to show on a half dozen screens in a theater in a top city to qualify for an award.

Frankly, I don't have a position. I'm fine with whatever the Academy decides to do about it.

 

[TonyD]

Sounds like they (movie makers) may forget that Oscars also drive people to see a movie.
If they are nominated and especially win, people will want to see it.
Maybe more people can see it on a tv.

Could it be because the movie makers will get more money if it shows at a theater then if it also shows on a tv at the same time?

 

[TonyD]

Frankly, I don't have a position. I'm fine with whatever the Academy decides to do about it.

When it gets right to the point of it all yeah for sure.
Whatever they do it really doesn’t effect how or what movie I’ll see.

 

[Carabimero]

The Academy's mission statement is to advance the arts and sciences of motion pictures, to foster cooperation among creative leaders for cultural, educational and technological progress, to recognize outstanding achievements, to cooperate on technical research and improvement of methods and equipment, to provide a common forum and meeting ground for various branches and crafts, to represent the viewpoint of actual creators of the motion picture and, finally, to foster education activities between the professional community and the public at large.

I'm not sure what the current rules are, but I know the thinking used to be that movies for consideration could only be judged fairly on the big screen.

The times they are a-changing, and I doubt Spielberg will win his battle. But his battle, IMO, is, by extension, to save the traditional theater system as we now know it. Is that a worthwhile goal?

 

[Jake Lipson]

I'm not sure what the current rules are, but I know the thinking used to be that movies for consideration could only be judged fairly on the big screen.

And yet Academy members don't have to go see films in a theater because they get screener discs in the mail. Just saying.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The times they are a-changing, and I doubt Spielberg will win his battle. But his battle, IMO, is, by extension, to save the traditional theater system as we now know it. Is that a worthwhile goal?

Probably, yes.

I think the biggest uphill battle that all content creators, be it for film, television, music, or anything else, have to face in 2019 and beyond is getting people who consume their content to pay for it. Advertising revenue on television isn’t what it once was. Illegal filesharing is rampant. There’s a huge amount of password sharing and trading among people who do subscribe to paid services. Demand for physical media is shrinking.

Once big movies are day-and-date home and theatrical, theatrical is done. Why pay to see Avengers 4 if you can watch it at home for free? And there is nothing that can come close to matching that revenue stream that will be lost. The entire landscape of filmed entertainment will change drastically in ways both predictable and not.

And that doesn’t even get into the job losses and potential for community devestation when movie theaters go away; we can already see some of what that looks like with online shopping putting department stores and malls out of business. Or what will happen in a societal sense with the loss of a communal form of entertainment that at its height was capable of bringing people from all walks of life together for a shared experience.

I think the movie exhibition business has obvious areas of improvement but I think abandoning the whole thing would be a terrible consequence.

 

[Edwin-S]

“My movies are shown on a movie theater screen. So obviously they are more important.”

How is this attitude any different than the one the Academy has fostered for decades when it comes to "Best Picture"? That being, "my movie is live-action. So obviously it is more important".

As far as it goes, I see the Academy Awards as an award system for feature films that play theatrically. As I see it, Netflix played by the rules. ROMA may have been streaming, but they also released it into theatres in order to qualify it for the Oscars. Spielberg really has no leg to stand on in this case. I mean, he makes a theatrical feature that ends up as a TV movie for 95% of its life and it is still a theatrical film; however, all of a sudden a film made for "TV" is released theatrically but somehow remains a "TV movie". The logic is twisted.

 

[Edwin-S]

The times they are a-changing, and I doubt Spielberg will win his battle. But his battle, IMO, is, by extension, to save the traditional theater system as we now know it. Is that a worthwhile goal?

If Spielberg is so concerned to save the traditional theatre system then maybe he should aim his criticisms at a revenue sharing formula that requires theatre owners to charge 8.00 dollars for a bag of popcorn and 5.00 for a soda in order to make money. He should be complaining about a revenue system where studios are literally killing the traditional downstream market for films, instead of trying to keep the work of other film makers from being considered for an award.

 

[TonyD]

How is this attitude any different than the one the Academy has fostered for decades when it comes to "Best Picture"? That being, "my movie is live-action. So obviously it is more important".

It doesn’t. This is wrong too.

 

[Carlo_M]

How is this attitude any different than the one the Academy has fostered for decades when it comes to "Best Picture"? That being, "my movie is live-action. So obviously it is more important".

This got me thinking. I checked IMDb for Grave of the Fireflies release year, and it was 1988. I checked the 1989 Oscars. The Best Picture winner was Rain Man, and I would have chosen GotF over that in a heartbeat. The irony? 1989 Oscars didn't even have an Best Animated Feature Film category (they had animated short film), and the Best Foreign Film nominees seems to be all live-action. So GotF had no opportunity to win, or even be nominated for, anything in the 1989 Academy Awards.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

[Tino]

This got me thinking. I checked IMDb for Grave of the Fireflies release year, and it was 1988. I checked the 1989 Oscars. The Best Picture winner was Rain Man, and I would have chosen GotF over that in a heartbeat. The irony? 1989 Oscars didn't even have an Best Animated Feature Film category (they had animated short film), and the Best Foreign Film nominees seems to be all live-action. So GotF had no opportunity to win, or even be nominated for, anything in the 1989 Academy Awards.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Grave Of The Fireflies is the most powerful animated film I have ever seen.

It is extraordinary.

 

[Wayne_j]

Roma wouldn't have gotten a wider release if it wasn't on Netflix. It is a black and white movie in two non-English languages.

 

[Edwin-S]

Grave Of The Fireflies is the most powerful animated film I have ever seen.

It is extraordinary.

Yes. I agree. It is an amazing film, but not one I can watch on a regular basis.

Spoiler

The death of his little sister was a real gut punch when I saw the film the first time.

and the way her

Spoiler

remains in the candy tin were thrown into the field like so much trash was depressing. I know they tried to end the story on an upbeat note by showing both of them watching as Japan recovered, but it just made what happened to them even more of a downer.

 

[Tino]

Yes. I agree. It is an amazing film, but not one I can watch on a regular basis.

Spoiler

The death of his little sister was a real gut punch when I saw the film the first time.

and the way her

Spoiler

remains in the candy tin were thrown into the field like so much trash was depressing. I know they tried to end the story on an upbeat note by showing both of them watching as Japan recovered, but it just made what happened to them even more of a downer.

Her voice was haunting.

 

[Jake Lipson]

This is a situation where Netflix's aversion to numbers is actually hindering their cause. Netflix could have said, "We put Roma into this many theaters and it stayed in them for this long and it made this much money." Providing this data would prove indisputably the scope of its theatrical release. But they decided to hide this information, which makes them more susceptible to being dinged by Spielberg because there is no data available.

 

[Malcolm R]

This is a situation where Netflix's aversion to numbers is actually hindering their cause. Netflix could have said, "We put Roma into this many theaters and it stayed in them for this long and it made this much money." Providing this data would prove indisputably the scope of its theatrical release. But they decided to hide this information, which makes them more susceptible to being dinged by Spielberg because there is no data available.

Agreed. I'm not sure what the big secret is on the part of Netflix? No one is expecting Roma to be a box-office blockbuster, and it actually played in a couple different theaters around here so it must have had a decent-sized release. Just put out the numbers.

 

[Wayne_j]

Requiring a wide release would completely destroy the field for Best Foreign Language Film. I think Roma actually had at least as many theaters playing it as any other films nominated in that category.