As Hollywood's awards season draws to a close, this year's Oscars nominees have struck a different note thanks to the presence of several blockbusters like Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water on the cards, perhaps hinting at a trend for the future.
With Everything Everywhere All at Once's 11 nominations leading the lines, it's worth asking how such an oddball film ended up gaining so much recognition, and it's impossible to do so without taking into consideration the Oscars' declining viewership. Couple that with some of the movies that have won the event's most coveted categories over the past few years, and there are reasons to think the Oscars could be experiencing a shift in tone, where more optimistic and popular movies now get to compete with intricate character dramas.
Are You Not Entertained?
While directors like Quentin Tarantino or Guillermo del Toro have tasted Oscar glory by doing their own thing, it’s clear the Academy prefers a certain type of movie when it comes to handing out awards. This leads to genres like sci-fi and comedy being shunned in favor of fledged-out dramas, perhaps more similar in tradition to The Whale than even something like Banshees of Inisherin — both movies feature stellar performances from Brendan Fraser and Colin Farrell, but they’re certainly not cut from the same cloth.
And it wasn’t always like that, as it’s possible to point out several great films that managed to win Best Picture as some of those years’ most entertaining moviegoing experiences — take Rocky, Annie Hall, Forrest Gump, Titanic, Gladiator or Slumdog Millionaire to name a few. Most tellingly, 2020 saw one of the most depressing Oscar ballots, as even a proper thriller like Promising Young Woman ends with its heroic protagonist being murdered.
2023 looks to be the year that wants to change that as movies like Elvis, EEAO, Top Gun: Maverick, The Way of Water, and even TÁR all put entertainment value on the forefront; on the other hand, the artistry behind The Banshees of Inisherin and Triangle of Sadness also hides a clever form of satire that’s quite enjoyable. This cohort of movies invites audiences to have fun, instead of moping over the sad state of the world, as even reprehensible individuals like Lidya Tár end up as losers.
Sure, Elvis may come off as the classic Oscar biopic, yet Baz Luhrmann’s flair makes it highly entertaining, especially for musicians that loved its sound mixing, with plenty of spectacle to be found in its stylish montages. Top Gun may not get Tom Cruise closer to an Oscar, but that’s because he wasn’t gunning for it, his performance is one in service of the movie, one that’s there to ensure Maverick is above all things a fun ride and not a showcase for his talent.
Are Blockbusters Getting Token Nominations?
Ever since the Academy expanded the number of films that are nominated each year for the grand Best Picture prize, the floodgates were opened so that more movies would get some sort of consolation when they failed to win or make it into the shortlist for other categories. After all, having “Nominated for Best Picture” makes for pretty impressive marketing, so with that in mind, many could argue that the Academy is simply pandering to a wider audience by including more mainstream movies.
Oscar winner Steven Spielberg himself said that Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight would be a lock-in for Best Picture in 2023 when addressing the inclusion of worldwide hits like the Top Gun and Avatar sequels. Nevertheless, the more one understands how the Oscars voting system works, the easier it is to see why Top Gun: Maverick actually has a realistic chance of winning it all, but James Cameron’s CGI showcase doesn’t.
Ironically, the Oscars switched to preferential ballot voting after 2009’s snub of The Dark Knight, a system geared towards ensuring that -generally- the most liked film tends to win, rather than a divisive motion picture that gets plenty of first spot votes paired with a high number of last place ones (for example, Don’t Look Up). All in all, movies like Top Gun: Maverick, which is overwhelmingly loved and gets little negative feedback could easily trump Elvis, EEAO, Triangle of Sadness and Avatar 2, since it’s easy to argue the latter’s story is severely lacking.
One award that usually goes in hand with Best Picture is the one for Best Original or Adapted Screenplay, and there Daniels' inventive and emotional sci-fi action in EEAO is acknowledged for its originality; whereas a sequel like Top Gun is highlighted for turning a cheesy 80s movie into a genuine Oscar contender. It's not just this lot, Rian Johnson's writing in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery got recognition too, and so did the Indian action gem RRR, after campaigning so heavily during the entire awards cycle.
2023’s Oscar nominees for Best Picture are the highest-grossing crop of films (not adjusting for inflation) in the awards’ history, and that is no accident in a year when Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar The Way of Water revived the box office with the kind income that only superheroes come close to nowadays. That they also happen to be fine examples of great filmmaking too big to ignore is just the cherry on top.