At this year’s Academy Awards, no film will be left behind, said Timothy Gray in Variety. For the first time since 1943, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has broken tradition and expanded the ballot for Best Picture from five nominees to 10. Too many recent Oscar winners have been challenging, little-seen films such as No Country for Old Men, and the Academy wants to spread the wealth and embrace the industry’s “whole spectrum.” This year’s potential winners range from the dark comedy A Serious Man to the inspirational sports saga The Blind Side.
Diversity is great, but the Academy’s reasons for expanding the category are not, said Neal Gabler in the Los Angles Times. The Academy seems more concerned with sustaining ratings for the awards-ceremony broadcast than with making sure worthy films get the attention they deserve. “It wouldn’t be the first time that the pursuit of money trumped the pursuit of quality.” So what does the Academy do? Pander to the masses. I call it “cultural inflation—a growing number of opportunities for the less deserving to get a taste of victory, as part of a growing aversion to disappointing anyone.” With this colossal blunder, the Academy runs the risk of devaluing the standard it’s supposed to set.
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