If you've been wondering why The Oscar Buzz has been largely quiet in the past month, it's because I'm sure as to how to open operations back up. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a lot of uncertainty, and I don't know if I have enough content to return to publishing stuff on here full time. However, there is some news that has finally arrived, suggesting that this year's Academy Awards aren't hopeless just yet. With theaters closed, one had to wonder what would happen next. Would we just be giving all of the statues to The Invisible Man and Birds of Prey? That seems ridiculous. Here's some good news, though. The first big update since the Academy Awards ceremony has dropped, and there's plenty to look forward to this season. It may not be the same, but it will definitely be an interesting one for the record books.
Yesterday, The Academy announced some major updates to this year's ceremony. It's a beloved past time that every summer a new group of rules gets brought down to us. The only issue is that most of us haven't been to a theater since mid-April at the latest. If we're watching movies with people, it's over a Zoom chat. The majority of major movies have been postponed to the Fall, or even later (I'm sad to not have In the Heights this summer). What can we even do when The Academy has faced their ultimate backlash (and, on a less relevant note, what does this mean for an Academy Museum opening date?). While there may be theaters opened this weekend, they won't be open everywhere, creating a hurdle that raises one big question mark.
Their answer is simple. Until theaters are opened up nationwide, the qualification rules are going to be different. That's right. For this year and this year only, The Academy will accept films that have that will premiere on streaming, but only if there was an intent for a theatrical release. Considering that the alternative would be to give (checks notes) the Best Actor statue to Will Smith for Bad Boys for Life, it makes sense to try and maintain this noble profession.
It's an interesting development given that The Academy has a long-contested history with streaming services. As of this moment, only four films since 2015 have been nominated for Best Picture from a streaming service like Amazon or Netflix. In recent years, The Oscars have rebelled against Netflix with many thinking that the Roma loss was a result of classicist rules that favored theatrical releases. Similarly, Netflix's The Irishman failed to win any Oscars last year after being seen as the initial favorite. While things have looked better for streaming services in the past two years, many still see it as a war.
That is why this development is an exciting one, as it means that V.O.D. releases will be considered for the first time in the ceremony's history. It's hard to tell what this will mean in the long run, especially if half of the theaters are open nationwide by the end of the year. Even then, it's better than eliminating prestige movies that probably wouldn't have come out since, let's face it, they want those awards. It's going to be interesting to see where things go from here, and I eagerly await what a Fall season looks like that is far less conventional than any year we've had. I sense that success will be measured differently and it may be what's needed for Netflix to finally be taken seriously as a Best Picture competitor. After all, the Best Picture symbolizes the past year of film, and nothing does that better than streaming after only two months of American quarantines.
Other rules have been brought up that will change in the upcoming year. For instance, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing will merge into one category. As someone who loved pulling out the specific differences during awards season as a parlor trick, it's a bit of a bummer, though is understood given that few actually take time to learn the differences. Similarly, the Best International Film category will have voters for the preliminary stages for the first time, differing from before where they only voted in the final rounds.
Finally, the Best Original Score category has evolved in very interesting ways. The score must include 60% original music, or in the case of franchises or sequels you need 80%. This is a relief, as I personally feel like there has been an unfair bias in the past as to what scores do and don't get disqualified. Whereas The Godfather and There Will Be Blood were disqualified for obscure cues, we have seen SIX Star Wars scores get nominated for the most familiar motifs in film history. I am not saying that John Williams is bad, but I think that all music should be assessed equally, and this is getting closer to my goal of recognizing music not for the motifs we already know and love, but for the creative ability to make something new and exciting.
While I don't know when The Oscar Buzz will open its doors full time again, I will hopefully have an update tomorrow with some idea of what I'm going to do in the meantime. For now, these updates have come as a great thing to ponder over and wonder what this season will look like. I may miss going to movie theaters, but I also want everyone to stay safe out there. If nothing else, this will be a ceremony that we'll be talking about to our grandchildren, who probably wouldn't believe that something like this happened. It's special in its own morbid way. I just hope it does enough to change the perception of what streaming movies have. I also hope that Martin Scorsese doesn't end up kicking himself for not releasing The Irishman this year when it would've likely gone over better with voters. Let's just hope.
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