|
 The
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has put its new Outstanding
Achievement in Popular Film category on hold for next year when they noticed the
negative response to it. The new category was one of many changes planned for
the 2019 Oscars. But some thought the new award was a glorified popularity
contest and not a celebration of excellence. Academy president John Bailey told
THR to explain their change of mind and try to justify the new award’s place by
saying it’s not about falling ratings for the telecast but rather to get more
mainstream movies back in the race: “I wasn’t expecting that kind of knee-jerk
reaction, largely from journalists. I don’t know why that happened because these
are the same people who have also criticized the Academy for being quote-unquote
irrelevant and not actually addressing the taste of people that go to the
movies. The same people who have criticized us for irrelevance and elitism now
suddenly were the guardians at the gate, talking about the bowdlerization of the
Oscars. The new award wasn’t some knee-jerk reaction to falling ratings or to
ABC or to anything like that. It was real clear on the part of the board and the
Academy that we needed somehow to make certain kinds of films eligible for new
awards. Unfortunately, some people misinterpreted this as our laying down pipe
for big mass-market franchise films.” The New York Times reported that a closed
meeting was held with 54 members in attendance to vote on rethinking the
creation of the category. Bailey was supportive of the new category but a few
were totally against it such as Laura Dern. Steven Spielberg was said to be
“uncomfortable” with category’s inclusion this year. So we will wait until the
2020 Oscars for new category but the 2019 show will be under three hours. Six to
eight categories will be moved to being awarded during the commercial breaks;
three of which will be the categories for short films. |
