| Posted on December 4, 2009 at 6:49 PM |
Oscar season has officially begun…and so have the "For Your Consideration” ads. Every year big studios push movies that have been garnering buzz. I always look forward to seeing the ads in Variety and on the web. This year, I’m just pissed off. Thanks to the ridiculous announcement that the Academy will be expanding the Best Picture category to 10 slots instead of 5, every studio is rounding up their junk and touting it as Oscar bait. If you don’t believe the severity, Paramount Pictures has launched an Awards campaign for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. WHAT THE FUCK! I refuse the write “WTF” when one of the worst movies of the year is actually being pushed as an Oscar contender. I clicked on the link and they’re not pushing it for technical achievements, but for Best Picture and Best Director.
If you look through my blog entries, one should be titled “WTF Sid Ganis?!?!” In it, I wrote, sarcastically of course, that if they want higher ratings they might as well nominate Transformers. Well apparently the assholes at Paramount were inspired to give it a try. If they want an Awards darling, maybe they shouldn’t have postponed Shutter Island. Besides, they have Up in the Air and The Lovely Bones. Why roll out Transformers? Some people may actually be angered, but I’m happy they’re pushing Star Trek for the Oscars.
It’s not just Paramount, even though their campaign is by far the most ridiculous. Warner Brothers is actually touting It’s Complicated, that terrible looking Meryl Streep romantic comedy, and The Hangover. I like The Hangover, but Oscars? Get real.
Universal is actually campaigning for Funny People and Bruno to get Best Picture nominations, among other categories. These are good movies but not Awards-caliber.
On the other hand, there have been some tasteful and creative campaigns for Where the Wild Things Are, Invictus, Up in the Air, The Informant!, Precious, and A Serious Man. I want to see campaigns for The Road and An Education or do you mean to tell me that Paramount has enough confidence in Transformers but the Weinsteins and Sony Pictures Classics don’t believe that their two masterpieces have potential.
This season is hectic, with great movies coming out every weekend and only a month left in 2009, but some of these campaigns are just ridiculous. If the Academy does what they do every year, which is honoring quality motion pictures, then next year studios will realize that ten slots doesn’t mean looking through the crappiest crap. If the Academy makes this year’s Oscars into a cheap ceremony only interested in attracting younger viewers, then they might as well nominate New Moon (oops, hope I didn’t jinx anything). If they begin to take these campaigns for Transformers seriously, they will lose their target group. Film critics and film fanatics, people who count on the Academy to recognize superior cinema, will write off this tradition. I will too. The Oscars is my favorite day of the year. It actually means something to me and has a special place in my heart. I will never watch another Oscars ceremony if ten slots means Transformers has a place next to the decades of superb films nominated for Best Picture.
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