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Facts about Oscar and how he's chosen
Every year you read articles by movie pundits and newspaper journalists putting the importance of the Academy Awards under question. Why are these awards so special? Why aren't the Golden Globes, the Foreign Press, the New York or Los Angeles Film Critics, the Broadcast Film Critics, SAG, DGA or any other of the Academy's many preceders and wanabes more relevant? Anyone can have an opinion. But there are some opinions that contain more value and carry more weight. One characteristic of academy members' opinions is that they are the result of unhurried consideration. There's no rush to judgement such as there is among other awarding institutions, some of which, in their haste to "beat the crowd", issue their picks as early as mid-December. One has to wonder if they've seen all the pictures essential for a complete judgement. By comparison, the Academy is screening qualified pictures throughout the year, nominated films in January and early February while the studios are distributing DVD screeners to the entire membership from early December. Let's have a look at who comprises the voting members of the Academy Awards. This may explain just what its relevance, its influence and its long life can be attributed to. In order to apply to become a member of the motion picture academy (A.M.P.A.S., or Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) you have to have the following:
Or...
And then the application is considered by a committee!
How this expertise is applied to the awards
In the first balloting for the awards, a member in a category votes for his
or her top choices for outstanding achievement in that category and only in
that category. In other words, the cinematography members will vote for
outstanding cinematography; the art director members will vote for
outstanding art direction.
Can anyone doubt that an artist or craftsperson is the best judge of what
constitutes outstanding work in their field? When you've been on the
artistic firing line, satisfying the needs of your director, the requirements
of a script and your own aesthetic and style you are in a very unique
position to recognize the value of that contribution in films by your peers.
It's that singular perspective that makes the Academy Awards so relevant in a
way that can come from no other honorific entity, commercial, judgmental,
educational, journalistic or whatever. However fine other awards may be, the
one that is most knowledgeable and influential will be the Oscars.
Now, you know why.
There are a few exceptions to this approach such as in the case of special
categories, such as Best Foreign Language Film, Best Documentary, etc., the
selections of which is made by committees comprised of highly dedicated
volunteer members.
Another exception is the determination of the Best Picture nominees which are
voted on by the membership at large. That makes it, perhaps, less
particular, more popular, but it's still coming from filmmakers'
perspectives.
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