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After seeing "La La Land" win the best picture I thought, "Wow! A musical wins? That's unusual."
Then reality crashed back and "Moonlight" actually won.
My question is, having watched one of the most uninteresting, pointless and boring movies of the last year, how are these decisions actually made? How on Earth can Moonlight win? The story was uninspired, uninteresting, had poor pacing and the acting wasn't even that great. There was no payoff at the end and no real message other than growing up can be a bit hard sometimes.
Don't get me wrong. Maybe it was OK for some people, there wasn't anything particularly bad (except the language) in it. My point isn't against this movie, it's just that there were many, many much better movies to choose from (such as Manchester by the Sea - which I didn't like much but was more interesting than Moonlight, or Arrival, which was deemed too intellectual for many people (only one small explosion and no death rays) but I though was great, lots of suspense and a strong secondary story, even La La Land was more interesting and really, really more entertaining even though I wouldn't watch it again any time soon).
My real question is, based on studying results for the last few years and incidents such as Harry Potter being snubbed so much (not just a little, but a lot), Meryl Streep not winning anything, and so on, who do you have to pay off, sleep with or blackmail to get the results you want in the Oscars?
Doesn't the whole system reek of corruption and politics? I'm not talking about any politicians or anything to do with any country's election system here; otherwise I would have posted this in the Soapbox.
I would be interested in other opinions - no US politics please.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Awards are a good indicator of what _not_ to see.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: Awards are a good indicator of what _not_ to see.
Lot of truth in that.
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Indeed. I wasn't planning on watching Moonlight or La La Land. 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Definitely skip Moonlight, La La Land is passable if you like Jazz otherwise forget it. Arrival is good as is Hacksaw Ridge which probably didn't have a chance of winning because the lead actor is half British!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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I suspect that in most cases a certain film wins because it's the director's/lead actors' "turn" to win. Last year no film with minorities was nominated, so this year they selected a film with an all-black cast.
It's a stupid way to choose the "best", but as long as the marks shell out money to see the films, why should they change the system?
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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Forogar wrote: Arrival, which was deemed too intellectual for many people
Really? I never thought I'd see a hollywood movie described as such. I'd imagine that there are goodly sums of money transferred around up until the time that the cards are printed, to whom, I'm not certain. There's just too much money too be made with a nomination and/or win to keep it honest.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Because the Oscars are Hollywood's most prestigious awards, they tend to award movies that make it look like they're saying, "Hey, we care about this particular issue our culture or humanity as a whole is dealing with (or perceived to be dealing with) right now."
You've also got to factor in the size of the Academy (6000ish I think) and human nature. There are all kinds of campaigns being made by studios to try and keep their film at the forefront of people's minds. And lunches, don't forget about those lunches. Supposedly the Academy changes the rules every year of how you're allowed to court voters, but even if you're a professional trying to be above board about how you vote, maybe that lunch or that campaign swayed you.
Also a lot of the Academy are pretty old. Films like Mad Max are too violent and too weird to pierce their sensibilities.
Every year is kind of the same experience. A lot of people are either unhappy with what won best picture, or don't understand why it won best picture. Considering the system and culture surrounding these awards, it's always going to be a problem. I personally just look at the trends of what's expected to win and don't get my hopes up too high for anything, because it's a problematic system.
Also, there are indeed merits for Moonlight, but any time you tell a story with a non-traditional narrative structure, you're going to turn off a looooooooot of people.
Thanks,
Sean Ewington
CodeProject
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A topic dear to your heart, it would seem? 
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 One day I plan to really dig deep and research the Oscars all the way. There's a lot in that big ol' mess.
Thanks,
Sean Ewington
CodeProject
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Simples, just like in the rest of the world and any unmentioned politics.
Follow the money.
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They are a bit like CodeProject points, but not as useful.
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...and you receive the Award for Best Reply!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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[applause size='huge']And the crowd goes wild![/applause] 
You can't win.
You can't break even.
You can't quit.
You're welcome.
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Speech! Speech! Just make sure you keep it short and stop when the music starts.
When you are dead, you won't even know that you are dead. It's a pain only felt by others.
Same thing when you are stupid.
modified 19-Nov-21 21:01pm.
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Disclaimer, I've not seen any/most of movies in this year's Oscar selection; so I cannot comment on their worth.
Regular people have different taste (good or bad) in movies.
People in the movie business have different taste in movies; I assume that at some point when you are in the movie business and see a lot of movies, your view on what makes a good movie is different than most of us, especially when you need to watch a movie instead of just watching movies you want to see.
It is a business, a big business and there is always some business politics involved; a movie that gets nominated will have more distribution and will get more tickets sold; and even more if wins an award.
Personally, I don't really care, If I like a movie, then I am happy.
I'd rather be phishing!
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I'd never heard of La La Land or Moonlight. Shows how well Hollywood keeps my interest. 
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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The biggest mystery is how people still watch that crap. The awards are just a way for these people to give themselves pats on the back.
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So, it's fun (except that it was way too long, missed the last couple of hours !)
I'd rather be phishing!
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The Oscars are reflections of reflections engineered to convince mere mortals the religion of Hollywood is as real (but sexier) a cartoon as the cartoon of dull, plodding, daily existence.
«When I consider my brief span of life, swallowed up in an eternity before and after, the little space I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, now rather than then.» Blaise Pascal
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When you are dead, you won't even know that you are dead. It's a pain only felt by others.
Same thing when you are stupid.
modified 19-Nov-21 21:01pm.
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Wal's law 327:
Any award program instantiated and implemented by people involved in the demesne is bound, by human nature, to be a complete and utter waste of time for those not involved in the demesne.
It's all internal politics, nepotism, and backhanders. How could it possibly be anything else, in the most corrupt and ego-centric industry in the world?
Just ignore it and watch the movies that you want to watch.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Mark_Wallace wrote: instantiated and implemented by people involved in the demesne
I fear these tarted-up show-horse ersatz Lords of the Manor are just sub-enfeoffed disposable mannequins, while the true Masters of the shires, and counties, laugh all the way to the bank far from the madding crowd.
cheers, Bill
p.s. I found this broader usage of 'demense' very interesting.
«When I consider my brief span of life, swallowed up in an eternity before and after, the little space I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, now rather than then.» Blaise Pascal
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"America's royalty".
The phrase that spurts forth from my heart when I hear that term is "My arse!"
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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