Does Oscar Need Changing?
 

While I can understand the lack of acting awards for ROTK, I still think Astin deserved a nom. and also felt Serkis/WETA should have gotten some special aceivement award for Gollum. I arrived at the conclusion that there needs to be a new award; Best Acting Ensemble in a Motion Picture. I cannot think of another movie that had such thouroughly good acting by so many actors. There are other movies as well in other years that have strong casts and deserve praise for such. I am also sure that Mystic River this year would have been a candidate for this Award as well.

I don't wanna turn Oscar into the Golden Globes or anything, but this seems like a natural choice for the awards.

Are there any other New Awards you feel should be added?

Perhaps Miramax could win the "Most Money Spent on a FYC Campaign" ;)

I think LOTR will still win the most money spent on FYC campaign as I was noticing ad's all over the place. sometimes as often as three per trade paper for LOTR's. so it still sweeps! ;)

though the golden globes doesn't have best Ensemble. It's in other award cermonies such as Broadcast Film Critics Association, International Cinema Awards and of course, Screen Actors Guild.

Should it be in the Oscars? It really depends. Since in the SAG awards it takes the place of best picture, I'm sure that makes it seem like a repeat award in the Oscars.

The new award that is most needed is "Best Comedy" LOONG over due to pay respect to the films that made us laugh and the actors who did just as much for that field as someone yelling "is that my daughter in there" does for drama. ;)

I agree with the Comedy award. Comedies have a long history of being Snubbed by Oscar. It's a shame we have to have a special award for it like Animated movies have been relegated to. Snobby Academy Members.

He he , Good to hear ROTK would have still swept given the additional category.

Considering how upset they were about Cold Mountain not getting nominated, maybe they need "Best Motion Picture By Miramax" award. ya know, just so nobody gets their feelings hurt again. ;)

Good one. :lol:

I agree with the ones mentionned so far, but want to add that they need to change their system for choosing Best Foreign Language film, because time and time again, the best foreign films never see the light of Oscar.

wouldn't adding more awards just make the show longer than it already is? zzZzz z Z zZ z Z Z z z zzzz

Maybe they should add a lightning round to the ceremonies.

I think they need to start dumping awards (or at least moving them off to another evening) before they start adding them. Nobody cares about "Best Short Subject" because nobody's seen those films anyway...including most of the people in the academy.

Also, they need to let in Rob Schneider. Hook a brother up for them free DVDs!

or a opening floor like in the game show 'Russian Roulette'

Years ago, when Chevy Chase was hosting, he did a gag about just that. He talked about the new method to get people off the stage when their acceptance speeches took too long, and a trap door suddenly opened beneath him and he fell below.

:up:

They could add an award or two if they dropped the awards involving Short Films, etc. from the main program.

The only problem with a "Best Ensemble" award is, who gets the trophies? The actual Oscars? They shouldn't really go to anyone other than the actors, since they would be honoring acting accomplishment.

But how many cast members get one? You certainly couldn't give every actor in the film an Oscar. Within ten years half of Hollywood would have one! Where is the cut off line? Just the top 5 billed? Or top ten? Imagine the behind-the-scenes politicking and backstabbing involved if the studio had to submit a list of only so many names to the academy for this award...

Ughh...we don't need a Best Comedy award. Heck, I'm not even crazy about a Best Animated, Best Foreign and Best Documentary...there should be only ONE Best Picture Award. I can live with the other three (since most of the nominated movies would get ignored otherwise), but lets not dilute it anymore than it already is.

By the way, Forrest Gump, Shakespeare in Love and Annie Hall were all comedies and they won Best Picture. (And Rain Man, Driving Miss Daisy and American Beauty - while dramas, had a lot of comedy in them).

Yeah the Oscars really needs to be changed...LOTR didn't win nearly enough awards.

According to IMDB, these are comedies (and films with strong comedic elements) that have won best picture. I bolded the titles that I consider "pure" comedy (little or no dramatic elements).

Annie Hall (1977)
Apartment, The (1960)
Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Gigi (1958)
Going My Way (1944)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Marty (1955)
My Fair Lady (1964)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Rain Man (1988)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Sting, The (1973)
Terms of Endearment (1983)
Tom Jones (1963)
You Can't Take It with You (1938)

17 total. 10 bolded. Out of 76 ceremonies. 22%

I say leave the awards alone. While it's fun to see people get stuff best acting ensemble really...would accomplish little. It wouldn't boost anyone's career much, as said before it would be tough as hell to judge who gets the award.

And I like the little awards, even though nobody has seen any of those shorts or documentaries. It's great to see more average people winning those awards.

I say leave it alone. Though, I wouldn't mind seeing a "best nudity by a celebrity" award. Heh.

Exactly, few people see, or give a crap, about these anyway.

A comedy category is much needed. It's just impossible to compare dramas and comedies IMO. They're just too different of genre's to be able to say the year's best comedy is better than the year's best drama or vice versa.

this is definitely not a comedy. apparently the IMDB considers any film that might make you laugh once or twice a comedy.

Well who would actually win an ensemble cast Oscar (the casting director?)? The other awards actually go to real people, and it's impractical to give awards to all the people in a movie. There are ensemble awards, including in the SAG, but I don't think the Oscars need any such award. No real need. The fact that LOTR has great acting just helps them win other awards, most directly best film, but indirectly it helps all categories.

I for one have no problem distinguishing and judging the relative merits of drama vs. comedy. They don't need their own category. I hate the way the Golden Globes does it. It's stupid and only done so they can insure the attendance of more stars.

Thank God they give awards to short filmmakers and animators. They've got 1000% more tallent in one finger than Rennee Zellwegger has in her whole body. Quit sucking celebrity dick. There's more to cinema and more to the Oscars than massaging the egos of star actors...

...you know...like masaging the egos of star directors :)

I just cannot sit through the ego-fest that is the Oscars anymore. Most (though not all) of the people involved are highly overpaid and dare I say lack the talent they like to tell you they had. Well, let me clarify that I am mostly talking about actors here.

I totally agree about Renee Zellwegger. She's dull, she has beady eyes and I just don't see the appeal.

Ughh...not the "overpaid actor" thing again...Actors are only paid what they are worth to a studio - so if a studio is looking to make $100 million dollars from a movie, they are going to dish out $20 million to get Tom Cruise in it, as opposed to $1 million for Tom Arnold.

If you could make the company you work for $100 million each year (sometimes several times a year), you'd get $20 million too!

No ensemble Oscars. As for comedic Oscars it' s time to just start nominating actors who do great comedic roles for best actor, actress, and supporting. Otherwise the award itself is watered down, which the Globes are. I mean, a great performance in a leading role is JUST that, comedy or dramatic. Why should a great comedic actor have to do dramatic roles in order to gain resepct and a nom???
Had this been the standard for the past several decades think of all the people who could have won and deserved that statue!! WC Fields, Jerry Lewis, Bill Murray long before now, and heeey....maybe then we would never have had to watch Jim Carrey moan about not winning!

He He He!!!! rotfl

I just broke into a hysterical fit of laughter when I unintentionally pictured Tom Arnold in The Last Samurai.

Thank You Shannon Nutt!

I can understand and half agree with many of the people that feel adding an ensemble or Best Comedy award might water down the Oscars, but at the same time I know that the academy sticks up it's nose to comedies time and time again, regardless of merit. Just like with the Best Animated award, very few voters were likely to ever give Beauty and the Beast the vote for Best Film no matter how much it deserved it, and the same would go for this years Finding Nemo, An Animated film will just Never win a Best Picture Oscar, the Academy snobs would never let that happen.

While I have to admit, I still dont know who to give it to, I still like the idea of Best Ensemble. I think you can have great acting as a whole in otherwise flawed films, so the acting wouldnt necessarilly elevate a movie to Best Picture status.

Personally, I wonder how much longer actors like Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford will be able to demand those $20 million dollar per pic salaries.

Know what would be a nice change to the Oscar ceremony? No more crying actresses, makes me wanna vomit everytime! Crying Actors are just as annoying, I dont wanna discriminate.

"Yeah! I'm Popular!"

I would be in favor of an ensemble acting award. I think that it should be given to the director/casting director set of people, since they were responsible for getting a collective good acting performance out of all of the actors in a film.

As for separating it into drama and comedy, I think that's overkill. To truely separate them and give them separate awards would make the Oscar awards long and tedious and emphasize more the acting elements than other elements of the film that go along with acting to make great films. Besides, as someone pointed out, many comedies have been awarded in the past, as compared to say "fantasy" films. Perhaps because fantasy films don't get much credit we should have a best "sci/fi" film and best sci/fi acting awards, etc. (just kidding!).

One other award I think that might be more useful to offer in the coming years that is hard to award now would be something like "virtual acting performance", which wouldn't single out just the actor, but anyone used to build an actor's performance that is either animated or CGI-generated (aka Gollum). This way someone like Andy Serkis and the crew that helped craft Gollum (or even Ellen DeGeneres and those that helped create the Dory character in Finding Nemo) get recognized. We're probably at a stage where there aren't enough "virtual performances" to justify an award like this just yet, but it's just a matter of time where this becomes more prevalent in films. Andy Serkis and Gollum this year shows how this sort of character can be very compelling and not just a "stiff technical creation" that these sorts of characters in the future will go beyond just artists and those providing voices to them that they have been in the past and a creative effort in and of themselves.

Things should be changed.

First thing first: Hollywood should make better films. Films that don't compromise the director's vision and don't cater to a certain age bracket because of potential box office.

2. The academy will acknowledge such films, as well as small films made on small budgets. And not just those "small films" that happen to star big name actors.
Oscar can even branch out and open its arms to genre filmmaking. Remember 1991's silence of the lambs? When was the last time a good scary movie won an award?

3. A given: No campaigning. Actors shouldn't need to hire a staff to make sure people know they were good in a movie. Studios like miramax shouldn't try to buy or influence votes.
It's all pretty pathethic.

4. More foreign films should be recognized. While it has gotten better over the past few years, there still is a great number of foreign films that were shut out from the awards because they weren't submitted by their country for whatever reason.
Any film from any country should be recognized based on it's merit alone.

5. Best ensemble is a good choice. Actors often work together and play off each other. Everyone is worthy when a film is well acted. At least altman films have a chance to win something this way :)

6. Kill the white man. Or, kill the volume when the academy president comes out to talk. He doesn't need to say anything. He should be seen and not heard.

7. Who needs a host, anyway? The bad jokes take up too much time.

8. If they do need a host, make sure it's jack black in 2005.
At least while he's saying their stupid scripted jokes he'll do something funny with his body language.
If jack is busy, get ben stiller and owen wilson. They are a great team.

9. No more fashion shows! Ugh. We all know they have enough wealth to afford them the best cloth money can buy.

10. Change the channel.