My
Coffin of Oscar Disdain
by
Kristin Battestella
My
piss-ant attitude toward Oscar pundits this messy awards season did
not happen overnight. As I've mentioned on Blue Sky and in
several Video and Podcast appearances alongside my
previous Why I'm Disinterested in Awards Season op-ed; my
disdain for the Academy Awards began early. Here then are the
chronological nails in my coffin and why the head scratching, so
often erroneous Oscars are not worth such out of control, vicarious
obsession for everything but the films that are supposed to
mean the most to us.
The 1980s Elitism
As
a kid in the eighties I was aware of the Oscars purely as prestige.
Awards were for art house, international, period piece epics and
serious films that I often didn't get to see. Oscar winning films
weren't for everyone, and that exclusivity remains largely true. Many
popular films and blockbusters or genre hits of the decade have
endured more than many of the obscure, out of touch eighties Best
Picture nominees. Maybe I didn't understand the details then, but the
Academy's unwelcoming, full of itself nature was already apparent.
The
Searchers receiving no nominations
When
we got our first VCR, I fell in love with what cinema should be upon
seeing The Searchers. In consulting
my ye olde film guides and Oscar books, however, I was
completely baffled that The Searchers not only didn't win any
of the big awards, but it wasn't even nominated for anything!
This was a how sway before there was even how sway. I read more
literature agreeing on the mastery of John Ford's seminal piece, and
this lack of Academy acknowledgment remains flat out WRONG. Little me
knew it then, and my disdain deepened upon reading of more fifties
Oscars errors – like Rear Window going empty-handed.
Goodfellas
losing Best Picture
Surely,
historical Oscar mistakes were just a fluke of classic film to be
studied, right? Alas no, as I saw the Academy screw up again in real
time when Goodfellas did not win Best Picture. Everything I
already thought about Oscar's elite attitudes was compounded by the
white savior Dances with Wolves defeating the unmistakably
Italian Goodfellas. This egregiousness made it personal.
Montgomery
Clift's losses
Falling
in love with the mid-century acting masterclass that is Montgomery
Clift's unfortunately brief body of work is something every so-called
classic connoisseur should do. Although nominated four times for The
Search, A Place in The Sun, From Here to Eternity and Judgment
at Nuremberg; Clift never won. A case can also be made that he
deserved more nominations for The Heiress, Red River, I Confess,
Suddenly Last Summer, Wild River, or The Misfits yet
because he's not an Oscar winner, Clift is now considered somewhat
second tier in the classic pantheon. My budding teen self was
once again confounded how some of the best films and performances
will always be on the outside looking in when it comes to Oscar.
The
ignoring of Terence Stamp for The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of
the Desert
Obviously
I knew nothing of the drag scene in nineties Sydney, but I learned
everything I needed to know about rainbow compassion from Priscilla.
Famed as the villainous Zod in Superman, Stamp's
middle-aged transsexual widow was a revelation transcending cinema. A
tender, delicate performance that was a bold, daring statement
speaking to post-AIDS attitudes that continues to resonate today.
Naturally the fearful Academy dared not touch such superb insight –
instead choosing the relative safety of only acknowledging Priscilla
for costumes.
L.A.
Confidential not winning Best Picture
Somewhere
along the line I heard someone say that the Screenplay winners are
actually the better movies than what wins Best Picture. Never has
this been more true than the heaps of praise upon the blockbuster
Titanic, which
is not the better picture than the neo noir masterpiece that is L.A.
Confidential. Here the
eighties prestige swung the other way – choosing the popular film
and box office success as increasingly necessary to win. Whether you
are a complex, sophisticated piece that stands the test of time
apparently has nothing to do with it.
No
nomination for Guy Pearce for Memento
Too
bad for everyone who's tired of hearing me say it, but this is my
hill. Guy Pearce's lack of Academy acknowledgment for Memento
highlights all of Oscar's problems. Playing it safe
#oscarssowhite not properly awarding Denzel Washington for Malcolm
X lead to his against type make up win alongside the nomination
acclaiming offensive performances like I Am Sam. This slap in
the face was enough to make me stop actively paying attention to
awards season for the rest of the decade. When the Academy doesn't
recognize someone like Pearce and Christopher Nolan as the future of
twenty-first century cinema, what are they even doing?
A
point for Christian Bale's win!
Believe
it or not, I took one nail out of my Oscar coffin in 2011 when
Christian Bale won for The Fighter. I even called my parents
to tell them the kid from Newsies won an Oscar! Despite his
previously being overlooked for more daring performances like
American Psycho and The Machinist, this was a rare
occasion where the Academy finally did something right.
Michael
Fassbender's nominations for the wrong films
Of
course, my return to active awards interest was not meant to be as
the impressive Fassbender was ignored for excellent performances in
Hunger and Fish Tank. He was on the outside looking in
at no nomination for Shame with jokes all season instead, and
Carey Mulligan was also unfairly lost in the shuffle. Of course,
Fassbender was graced with a seemingly obligated nomination for 12
Years a Slave, and I laughed at his subsequent nod for the
stereotypically baity Steve Jobs. Forcing one of our most
daring actors into awards safety turned me away yet again.
Guy
Pearce receiving no acknowledgment for The Rover
I
casually knew Pearce was once again not in the awards conversation
for The Rover, having long accepted that it's worth seeking
out his edgy, raw films that standing pat Oscar would never touch.
However after having to wait for and then finally see The Rover, I
was once again angry at how the supposed bar of award excellence
could ignore such haunting material. Even in absentia this reaffirmed
my Oscar free attitude for the next decade.
The 24-25 Awards Season
So
now I was lured into the awards circus once more thanks to the
world's apparently waking up to Guy Pearce's being worthy of acclaim
for The Brutalist. We're in the home stretch of what has been
the messiest, nastiest, cutthroat, and ridiculous award season.
Everything about why I hated awards has increased tenfold in the
social media age with Oscar obsession totally out of touch on
everything that's happening in this disastrous 2025. Euphoric pundits
play along in a game of predictions, patterns, and if this than that
algorithms that have nothing to do with any meaning found in the
films and performances. When the wannabe experts admit that the best
doesn't win, film goers are supposed to accept that falsehood instead
of enjoy the movies that move them? I object the devotion to
contrived Academy politics over quality cinema.
I
don't expect Guy Pearce to win anything. Even if he did, this year is
the tenth and final nail in my Coffin of Oscar Disdain. I've had one
foot out the door with my back turned for most of this century, and I
will never be drawn back into award punditry and patheticness over
art ever again.
Oscar
is dead to me. I don't know her. ⚰️
