Do the Academy Awards Make Sense to You?

[MW7]

I think it's fairly common knowledge that the Oscars tend to favor certain kinds of films ("Oscar Bait") over others. However, even being aware of that, if you gave me ten movies of good quality to watch, I'm confident that I would have no better than a 1 in 10 chance of identifying the film that the Academy would select as the best.

Art is extremely subjective, and I try to understand why certain movies are selected for best picture but sometimes it's just impossible. I had this topic in my head after coming across a random post on another video game related forum questioning how Annie Hall won best picture over Star Wars in 1977. That example is actually pretty understandable to me as I would see this as two unforgettable movies with one having to lose. However, there are other examples that make no sense to me, such as in 1980 when Ordinary People won over Raging Bull among other films. That same year, three other classic movies - Empire Strikes Back, Airplane, and The Shining- weren't even nominated (each of these are from genres generally looked down upon by the Academy as far as I'm aware). I've watched Ordinary People, and I would describe it as well-made with solid acting but unremarkable overall.

I just have no clue sometimes how film selections for best picture could be made by the Academy. Is anyone else confused by this?

 

[Vanessa28]

I don't care about the Oscars at all. Most of the time it all depends on personal taste. There have been plenty of movies which won like multiple awards and I disliked them (Titanic is one example). But sometimes it can be recognition. Some actors/actresses really did a brilliant job in portraying a character and deserve an oscar for this. Too often I found the Oscars biased. When the judges don't like a certain genre or a certain movie even though the majority of the audience love it, you can bet "another" movie is brought up and nominated for multiple oscars. I don't even follow it anymore.