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Movie Reviews, & Film Industry Commentary

Ever wonder why one film gets recognition for something and another doesn’t? Some people love a film, but it doesn’t get the critical recognition an obscure one that few people have seen gets it instead? It’s really simple. Two things: Movies are a business and Politics.
The so-called ‘good’ films that tend to win awards are most frequently released towards the end of the year. This is because (1) in America, the holidays at the end of the year and colder weather make for more time spent indoors and more free time, so people are more likely to go to the movies than other times in the year (with the exception of mid-summer when free time and warm weather have the same affect). (2) It also means the films are released closer to the deadlines for the Award shows and therefore fresher in the memories of the people that vote for those awards, which is part of why one film may win the same category at all of the award shows one year. This is not to say films from earlier in the year are forgotten. So called ‘Summer Blockbusters’ often get awards as well, but tend to be for more technical reasons; but in recent years the marketing strategy for studios is to release the same ‘Blockbuster’ on DVD shortly before voting starts on the Award Shows, also to keep it fresh in the minds of the voters. Often smaller, less seen films from earlier in the year are kept alive in these races by the willpower of ‘Artists’, be they the Producers and Actors pushing for people to see the DVD or Critics and audiences that simply enjoyed the movie. These films, though, tend to only get one or two nominations.

Now the ‘Awards Season’ comes about. Typically, it starts with film festivals earlier in the year, where independent films seek out someone to buy and distribute their film (the business side of movie making at work). Then various Film Critics groups for larger cities announce their choices often followed by larger non-interest groups in film giving their ‘Top 10’s, such as the American Film Institute (AFI) or National Board of Review. The Golden Globes tend to signal the most flurry in December, primarily because of how close the nominations are to the (deadline and) end of the year. Usually the various Guilds of Film professionals will then make their selections in January of the next year. Usually the Golden Globes will be awarded and Academy Award (or “Oscar”) nominations will be announced within a week of one another, and then the competition is on. The Oscars are considered the primary award for a film because (A) it is the oldest Awards institution, (B) it has become so distinguished and traditional in Hollywood that prestige is almost automatically given to a person that wins an Oscar, and (C) it creates a branding and ‘buzz’ about a film that increase the revenues to those same nominated films. The Guilds then will give their awards to their respective winners and other organizations weigh in, such as the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). And then the Oscars themselves are given out close to or in March of the following year.

So how, you ask, do these work? The Golden Globes is simply enough. It is sponsored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, less than one hundred delegates of press from non-U.S. countries who chose who the nominees are and vote on them. It is in part because of this small size and single profession voting block that the Globes can be easily biased, such as nominating a person in film for a role in a sequel, which the Oscars dislike doing very much with few exceptions. One of the more interesting aspects of the Globes, however, is the variety of the Awards. It is the only American Awards show to recognize both Film and Television and to make a distinction in film between Drama and Comedy / Musicals. It is also the only one with an open bar all night, which is probably why so many film stars seem to enjoy themselves tremendously there. The Golden Globes are the starter to the car that is Awards Season, but it’s not the engine. That would be the Guilds. Looking at the Guild’s nominations and awards will give inkling as to how the Oscars for that category will go (as will be explained later). The Screen Actors Guild follows the Actors, Editors Guild Editors, Directors Guild Directors, et. Al. In this area of the Awards Season, for a glimpse at Oscars’ Best Picture race, look at the Producers Guild, since the Producers are the ones that get to keep that most coveted Oscar. (If you watch mainly for fun, you may want to look at the Annie Awards, which are the Awards for Animated films.)

Then there are the Academy Awards. The process for the Oscars usually runs in this manner. The Academy has many branches, each covering a different aspect of filmmaking (Editors, Musicians, Art Directors, Make Up Artists, etc.) with the Actors branch making up the largest branch (something akin to 25% of the overall Academy). Each branch will, by ballot, select the nominees for their respective branches (Directors for Directors, Writers for Writers, etc.) and are tabulated with all of the others. The members of that branch on each ballot also get to select their choice for Best Picture (meaning they get to vote for only their category and the top slot). Some of the categories, such as Best Song, Documentary, Visual Effects, or Foreign Film are short listed based on applications and balloting ahead of time and the final nominees are taken from that short list. The results for all of the categories are announced together as the Oscar Nominees. (Which is where the Guilds become relevant in this.) The ballots with the Nominees on them are then sent out to the Academy members for all to vote on all categories. Many of the identities of Academy members are not publicly known or acknowledged, though past winners are typically among them, and some are the only public faces for the Academy such as Tom Hanks and James Woods and among the non-Nominees / Winners in the Academy is Dennis Leary. These Academy members often get a ‘care package’ with their ballot that has DVD’s or VHS tapes of the nominated films, which are often not available to the public. (A scandal erupted in 2005 on this very issue, resulting in an Academy Member’s ejection after copyright infringement charges were brought about in Federal Court.) The ballots are tabulated by an Accounting firm, which prints up the famous ‘Envelopes’ seen at the Award shows, making them fair and impartial. Typically, the Best Picture nominees will be representative, with rarely more than two nominees covering the same topic the same year or coming from the same studio, making it best to sometimes discriminate against a second or third film covering the same area. And that is how Award shows work.

- Doug The Movie Guy

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