O is for The Oscars

It’s said almost every year of the Oscar nominations, but no more true is it than this year: The only surprise is that there is no surprise. This was the year when many expected the Academy to nominate a comic book adaptation, namely The Dark Knight, in the Best Picture category; others tipped WALL-E to become only the second animated film (Beauty & The Beast being the first) to pick up a Best Picture nod. Instead the Academy played it safe once again, leaving those who predicted a more eclectic list of nominees looking naive and just a little bit foolish.

The Dark Knight may have grossed more at the box office than any other film this year, and garnered glowing reviews from the majority of the international press, but it was never going to be nominated for Best Picture. I’d like to think that that’s because it’s not as good as the hype led people to believe, but there are two less valid reasons that doomed The Dark Knight from the off. One: it’s a comic book movie about a bloke who wears a mask and a cape, and two: it was released in the summer.

Academy members are a fickle bunch and the studios know this. That’s why there’s a glut of films that are “for your consideration” — so-called “prestige movies” — around the turn of the year. If you’re a big Hollywood studio hunting an Oscar you don’t want your film being forgotten by the time voters turn out to vote, you want your film fresh in their minds. It’s cynical politics but that’s the way the Oscars work.

I’m sure if I had seen more of the films nominated — and just as importantly, film’s that have not been nominated — I’d have a lot more to be indignant at. For one, I’m sure if I had seen both Kung-Fu Panda and Waltz with Bashir I’d now be up in arms to see that Kung-Fu Panda made the Best Animated Feature nominees and Waltz With Bashir didn’t.

There’ll probably be some surprise winners announced on the 22nd of February but it’s questionable if the regular cinema-going punter still cares. After John Stewart did a brave job of trying to liven things up last year I thought cheeky British comedian Ricky Gervais would be the perfect host at this year’s Oscars, representing a shift away from the usual staid display of backslapping and towards something more… entertaining. Instead, however, the movers and shakers asked Hugh Jackman (you know, that hunky bloke who plays Wolverine in the X-Men movies?) to fill the role.

I shouldn’t have been so surprised.