Mar
8
If sci-fi couldn’t succeed in any of the major categories at this year’s Oscars, will the genre ever be well-represented?
Expanding the Best Picture category to ten pictures was a gamble for the Academy, especially during a year that was relatively soft on quality releases. I’m not taking anything away from The Hurt Locker’s success across multiple categories, but in a year where there were double the opportunities and only half the competition, movies of Star Trek’s calibre really should have received a nod.
In a way, it feels some entries in the Best Picture category were just there to make up the numbers – in previous years, I’d be dubious as to whether a Pixar film or a decent-but-not-astonishing Tarantino flick would get a look in. That said, these eased into the ten-category race while Star Trek, as expected, was snubbed.
So, why? Is it because it was too mainstream? Well, that can’t be the case when heavy-hitters like Avatar and District 9 occupy the ranks. Perhaps there’s just something about the name ‘Star Trek’ that isn’t Academy-friendly. Then again, that wouldn’t explain why so many other great sci-fi pictures have been neglected in the same way over the years.
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Star Trek may not have won Best Picture but it still should have one Best Special Effects and Best Actor for Chris Pine. Oh and Zachary Quinto. If there was an award for Best Emotional Scene then the beginning of the film should have won it, as even I choked back the tears.
Of course Transformers 2 should stay away from the Oscars, but I was surprised not to see Moon in there. Good to see Let The Right One In there, even though it didn’t win. Such a brilliant film. Let’s hope next year more scifi and horror films are recognised in the Oscars…
The problem is, for the most part, the average movie watcher has only a passing familiarity or interest in science fiction movies. Everyone knows the big franchise names like Star Trek, Star Wars and Terminator. People will come out for the familiar name, the big spectacle (Avatar) and a curiosity on occasion (District 9). But the interest of most stops with those. The sad truth is that the science fiction movie genre is on the fringes more than the mainstream, and usually gets very little respect as serious art.
You could look at it from the point of view that this year has seen the strongest attempt yet for scifi. Let’s face it, if scifi ever gets a nod for Best Picture (and by golly it’s extremely rare), it’s usually as a token entry perhaps purely in recognition of a movie’s popularity. I’d guess to the Academy, popularity in scifi generally equates to lightweight escapist entertainment with nothing to say and of relatively little import. And for the most part, they’re probably right.
May do the best Box Office; provide the biggest thrills and spills, sustain countless multi-million dollar industries, and be the most popular genre on the planet and the purest path to continued technological innovation within the medium itself, but when it comes to discussing blue Smurfs and Klingons over Bordeaux and Caviar… well, disarming bombs in Iraq just kinda fits better…
Shortsightedness and snobbery aside, whilst scifi this year still only managed a fifth of the Best Picture nominations, it was in the form of “Avatar” and “District 9″. Escapist entertainment – sure, but perhaps with a little more going on beneath the surface when compared to your standard scifi fare? Guess that’s the way scifi has to go if it wants to be taken seriously, as popularity alone just won’t cut it.
I’m surmizing that a limit was imposed for the genre, as “Moon” was curiously ignored. Shame. Far more deserving and worthy an entry than “Star Trek”. As was Pixar’s “Up” and Tarantino’s “Basterds”. And pretty much any other movie released in 2009. Including “Revenge Of The Fallen”!
Nah, just kidding with that last bit. Possibly.
So after 80+ years, I prefer to see this as a step towards acceptance of the genre rather than another snub. If “Lord Of The Rings” can do it, then there’s still hope. Indeed, if it hadn’t been for that pesky Kathryn Bigelow and the damn fine “The Hurt Locker”, then things may well have tipped in the genre’s favour.