Mark Harris makes points I've heard before:
... {T}he proper reward for an animated movie that is judged one of the year’s best films but not the best should be exactly the same as for any other movie — a Best Picture nomination. A separate award feels redundant in a great year — and worse than that in an off year. ...
I understand where Mr. Harris is coming from, and I appreciate his sentiments. But the real-world point he misses is, if animated features don't have their own category -- no matter how good they are -- they will never win the The Little Gold Man for "Best Picture."
The Academy as a whole, dominated by live-action filmmakers, would never elect a "mere cartoon" to the Big Prize. Ever.
I wonder if Mark sees this?
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Okay, this isn't going to make me popular, but the fact is if you are making an animated feature the odds are way better to be nominated for an Academy Award than if your film is live action.
Lets look at the numbers. There were 18 animated features eligible for an Academy Award this year and so 5 films were nominated. That means that every animated movie has a 1 in 3.6 chance of scoring a nomination. To contrast that, there were 265 live action films vying for 9 nominations, meaning the live action movies have a 1 in 29.44 chance of scoring a Best Picture nomination.
I think it is time the Academy reviewed just how animated movies get their nominations and think about a way of limiting the number of nominees (the way Best Song only had 2 nominees this year) because 5 nominees for such a small amount of qualifying films seems ridiculous.
There should ALWAYS be an Academy Award for animated feature, it is just that with so many nominees in such a small field, true excellence and originality ends up mixed in with the ordinary.
Just to add to the above, if you transposed the odds of an animated feature getting nominated over to the live action side, then there would be 74 nominees for Best Picture this year.
Or, maybe we should cut through the crap and simply give the Oscar to the most profitable animated movie of last year.
That's what this wacky contest is all about anyway.
"To contrast that, there were 265 live action films vying for 9 nominations,"
Actually, those live action films are vying for many dozens of nominations, including best actor, best actress, best supportings and so on... that go to live action films.
But all this fuss over whether there should be a category is out of proportion with what a small blip an Oscar is in the grand scheme of things.
But all this fuss over whether there should be a category is out of proportion with what a small blip an Oscar is in the grand scheme of things.
That's true, but when you die, your obituary will say "Oscar Winner" or "Oscar Nominated".
At any rate, I never agreed with the category of Best Animated Feature, but at least they are now able to also get nominated for Best Feature as well.
Best Animated Feature makes for the opening of a lot of seats in the middle of the ceremony when all the losers get up and leave.
Oh, animated features will get NOMINATED. But animated features will never WIN for Best Picture.
"Or, maybe we should cut through the crap and simply give the Oscar to the most profitable animated movie of last year."
Then rango wouldn't win, which would be fine by me! But neither would have the great Iron Giant.
Why is everyone so inclined to attack the Animated Feature category but not the Animated Short category? The same reasoning applies to both.
How how about we do away with Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and just have one category:
Best Person Acting (be it male or female.
"Oh, animated features will get NOMINATED. But animated features will never WIN for Best Picture"
I love proclamations like this, right up there with, "Man will never walk on the moon!"
Interesting article over at Slate.com about documentary filmmaker. They, too, feel slighted. One category for 300 films, never a nomination for any other categories, etc.
All those arguments about the number of animated films against the live action films for nominations is completely flawed. 265 for 9 live-action and 18 to 5 in animation, so what? All other oscar nominations categories have even wider odds. Take the supporting actor category, how many supporting actors are in each of those live action films? and for the same number of nominations.
The oscar for animation category exist not because of the quantity of animated films released. It's simply to show how many were above the quality within the animated films released this particular year.
If your argument is against the quality of animated films versus the amount of nomination, then you could say same about the live-action category.
"Oh, animated features will get NOMINATED. But animated features will never WIN for Best Picture"
I love proclamations like this, right up there with, "Man will never walk on the moon!"
Animated features have been part of the movie mix since 1937. That's seventy-two years.
In that time, they are O for 72 in the "Best Picture" WIN category.
When my proclamation becomes void, I'll buy you a cream soda.
"When my proclamation becomes void, I'll buy you a cream soda."
That's hardly a concession for someone who makes an upper-middle class living doing a job that cant do anything for anyone.
Hey now. You know how much cream sodas cost these days?
And remember: my upper middle class living is available to any qualified TAG member who runs for the job I now fill and gets the most votes.
can we apply the same logic to Live Action Comedy and have a separate category ? the odds are equally poor.
"That's hardly a concession for someone who makes an upper-middle class living doing a job that cant do anything for anyone."
Spoken like someone who's never attended a Guild membership meeting.
"And remember: my upper middle class living is available to any qualified TAG member who runs for the job I now fill and gets the most votes."
Nobody in TAG that's working wants the demotion.
Does the job come with cream sodas?
There are tons more COMEDIES made than animated films, yet comedies don't have their own category. And they get nominated for Best Picture even rarer than animated features do.
You could argue this all day, for all genres...
I agree with Steve's proclamation. Man landed on the Moon because people tried to make it happen. The WGA, DGA, and SAG have made it their mission to exclude animation from the top prize since Beauty and The Beast got the nom, which is why we have the category.
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