Most Popular Film Category Put on Hold

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Variety/REX/Shutterstock (9774278t) Spike Lee ‘BlacKkKlansman’ film premiere, Arrivals, New York, USA – 30 Jul 2018

Due to peer pressure the academy has decided to put the most popular Oscar category on hold until  further notice. I believe that more films should be nominated due to the fact that there are so many films coming out in theaters every year. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 films come out every year now. That’s way up from the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s or 50’s many years ago. We need to figure out a way to reward all the great films that come out every year and not bury so many great films. The awards aren’t enough anymore to just say well 10 nominees and one winner or five nominees and one winner we need to have different categories so we can show that there are more than just art house and indie films that are great. Just because a movie cost 150 or 200 million doesn’t mean it’s not a great film those film should be  rewarded for some of the things that are different than art house and indie films. Such as special effects and spectacle. As far as Black Panther goes I believe it’s not the best MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) film this year. I believe that honor goes to Avengers: Infinity War. There is so much going on in Infinity War so many characters and so many storylines for that film to look and have such an emotional impact it’s definitely the best MCU film of the year. Is the post credit scene in Ant-Man and the WASP great film? No that’s not a whole film. Black Panther I feel like is more like Captain America: Winter Soldier than it is its own movie. I understand the diversity in the black cast and the whole idea of having and all black  film and whatnot I just don’t think it’s one of the best films of the year I mean they’re easily 15 or 20 films in my opinion that are better than Black Panther. Other films like Black K Klansman come to mind that are trying to do something similar as Black Panther and they do it a better way in my opinion. So does the film I’m Sorry to Bother You and Eighth Grade and Leave No Trace and First reformed. I mean there is so many even Incredibles 2 does the superhero genre better than Black Panther in my opinion.

As far as trying to get diversity in the acting and directing and cinematography categories.  Some of these categories I feel like you know you can compare film and movies in a way to baseball. Where  Major League Baseball wanted to get more more black Americans people to play the game of baseball. There losing people  so what did they do they started academies in places like Cuba and Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and Venezuela so they could become great prospects and baseball players in the future. This is what we need to do we’re not getting minority actors and actresses and people like this to do this kind of work cuz it’s not easy being a filmmaker in an actor in a cinematographer and a writer and so forth.  These jobs aren’t easy so I understand how having the Academy is having problems getting minorities to do this stuff is a difficult thing but force-feeding us minority films because you put a bunch of people into the academy so that’s going to change the type of films that get nominated I don’t think that’s the right way to go. We need to get the best people doing the this work you know people like Steve McQueen and Barry Jenkins as far as directors go they worked hard to get where they came up through the system made smaller movies.The same thing works  for Spike Lee he has worked his way up over the decades to become one of the great filmmakers there is. There was a time he didn’t just start out becoming a great filmmaker deserving Oscar nominations yet did he make a really good film In Do the Right Thing sure. And then what did he do? He started out doing Nike commercials. and stuff like that. so the actors and the directors need to hone their craft to get to the point where they’re successful. For instance Amandla Stenberg she worked her way up through doing the Hunger Games then she did Everything,Everything then she did The Darkest Minds this summer which wasn’t the best movie and now she’s got the Hate You Give so little by little by little she has been doing the work and so she’s going to eventually get rewarded. For that you just can’t throw these people into Oscar consideration when they haven’t had a body of work that deserves it or performance that deserves it. I think that films such as Crazy Rich Asians are interesting and entertaining films but they’re not Oscar contenders the films that are coming out in the fall like First Man, Boy Erased, Old Man, and the Gun, Can You Ever Forgive Me, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Front Runner and Roma and so many other films like these are the kinds of films that deserve to be looked at if they turn out to be bad films then you forget them. Then put them to the wasteside but we’ve already got 15 or 20 and that to me is what should be celebrated not diversity in Asians Latinos and African-Americans and film in cinematography and directing. The Brits and Aussie do it right. They have their children learn acting and filmmaking at a young age. It’s part of there school curriculum. So that’s why they are far ahead of other countries in learning to be actors, actresses and filmmakers.

ALFONSO CUARîN DIRECTOR GRACE OF MONACO, PREMIERE. 67TH CANNES FILM FESTIVAL CANNES, , FRANCE 14 May 2014 DIR68683 (Newscom TagID: ptsphotoshottwo470796.jpg) [Photo via Newscom]

….February 7 2015, LA….Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu arriving at the 67th Annual Directors Guild Of America Awards at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza on February 7, 2015 in Century City, California…….By Line: Peter West/ACE Pictures……ACE Pictures, Inc…tel:Email: (Newscom TagID: acephotos455235.jpg) [Photo via Newscom]

88th Oscars Nominations Announcement Featuring: Guillermo del Toro Where: Academy Of Motion Picture Arts A, California, United States When: 14 Jan 2016 Credit: FayesVision/WENN.com (Newscom TagID: wennphotosfive585778.jpg) [Photo via Newscom]

For example we have three great directors from Mexico Alejandro, Gonzalez iInarritu Alfonso Curon and Guillermo del Toro. These guys work their way up they did small films they all had different paths to getting to where they are today but they’re all oscar-winning directors and they did it by working hard coming up through the system and they didn’t ask for anything they they went out and they did the work and then eventually they were rewarded for doing the work Curon for Gravity, Guillermo Del Toro for The Shape of Water, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Birdman and the Revenant. I mean these are all great films so once they build up their reputation then they were considered great filmmakers and the opportunities are out there but you have to go do the work and you have work hard at it and then you’ll eventually get rewarded. A lot of these categories I think people have to remember that when it comes to the Oscars you shouldn’t just be able to give all these Awards away to people just because they’re Asian or Black or Latino.

By Dan Skip Allen