People have been asking about this for years, and now the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has spoken — “popular” films will get their own category. A decade ago, the Oscars expanded the Best Picture category to allow for more “mainstream” films to be included. This meant films like “Avatar,” “Inception,” “Toy Story 3,” and “District 9” all got Oscar love that they probably wouldn’t have previously. But still, there hasn’t bee this influx of popular films as expected.
Now, with films like “Wonder Woman” and “Black Panther” arguing that superheroes should get their day in the Oscar sun, the Academy has heard the cries and now introduced their own Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film category, aka Best Blockbuster, according to an email sent to Academy members (via THR). So what does this mean for the future of the Oscars? Well, quite a bit actually.
This year was being set up as the year that superhero filmmaking would make it to Oscar season, with “Black Panther” having a massive box office total and incredible reviews to match. But now, with the Popular Film category, that means the Academy can “honor” ‘Panther’ without giving the film the Best Picture nom. While many would see that as a good thing, the problem continues that popular movies will still struggle mightily to get true awards recognition. But there will be more discussion about this topic later, as the official eligibility requirements have not been laid out.
The email sent to members also included a couple more changes, including an abbreviated run-time. Now, the Oscars telecast will run only 3 hours. According to the message sent, that means some categories will not be televised as usual, and instead will be awarded between commercials. And during the telecast, the Oscars will highlight some of those acceptance speeches. This is in an attempt to raise viewership, as many don’t want to sit around for 4+ hours to watch the show.
And finally, the upcoming 2020 Oscars will move up a couple weeks to February 9, instead of the previously announced February 23.
Here are some of the best reactions on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/hillibusterr/status/1027228386446462977
https://twitter.com/MattOswaltVA/status/1027239959378374657
https://twitter.com/loudmouthjulia/status/1027218026347855872
https://twitter.com/elijahwood/status/1027223726218080256
https://twitter.com/frankpallotta/status/1027220118462509056
https://twitter.com/MarkHarrisNYC/status/1027218323799531520
https://twitter.com/davidlsims/status/1027219660956213249
https://twitter.com/RobLowe/status/1027251971286163457
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Soooooo, AMPAS finally succumbs to the “Everyone-Gets-a-Trophy” line of thinking. As the culture goes, so goes Oscar. Embarrassing.
Not really, you have categories (and more of them) in other competitions. I don’t think this is such a stretch.
I don’t think I follow what you’re saying. Can you explain?
Oh well, soon enough the movie that wins the Oscar will be the one that made the most at the box office. I got Transformers 26 in 2055 as the sure fire best picture front runner.
Come on, I galdly sit for 4+ plus hours to watch the Oscars, is once a year after all. And the fact that they are awarding stuff during comercial breaks is awful.
About the most popular category, well, was that necessary? What qualifies as best popular and best picture now, will they be mutually exclusive?