Science Fiction and the Academy Awards

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RocketFeller

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For the first time in history two Sci-Fi movies have been nominated for best picture! I haven't seen Avatar yet, but I really love District 9.

There have been only a few other Sci-Fi films to receive a best picture nomination, notably A Clockwork Orange, Star Wars, and E.T.. It is nice to see the genre represented twice this year.

It would be great to see one of these win, usually the best picture Oscar goes to some movie I will never see...
 
It would be great to see one of these win, usually the best picture Oscar goes to some movie I will never see...

Having seen both of the movies you've mentioned, as well as a couple of the others, Avatar is the only one that I think has a chance. D-9 was a very interesting movie, but.... didn't seem to have that snap that makes it a great movie (and importing the American actors as the bad guys in a South African production somehow just seemed wrong).

Now, another SF movie that should have been included in that list in years past.... Contact !
 
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Take note that this year, for the first time, there are TEN movies nominated.

In the past, it has always been 5 nominees for Best Picture. So, comparison to past years have a lot of apples/oranges factor going.

For example, if ten had been eligible in the past, then maybe “Contact” would have been nominated (but would not have won even if nominated).

Or a second sci-fi film in the same year. Remember, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” came out the same year as Star Wars did, but only Star Wars was nominated for Best film. If ten nominees existed then, almost surely Close Encounters should have been nominated among the “other five”)

And to say that two Sci-fi movies nominated this year is historic.... it means almost nothing compared to the past since almost surely District 9 would NOT have been nominated if the number of nominees was 5 and not 10.

The “historic” thing is that the people who run the Oscars came up with the ten films as a gimmick to attempt to generate more interest in watching the Oscars telecast. But I do not see why including five lesser movies in addition to the top five movies is supposed to be a “winning move”.

If it was really such a great idea, then all of the other categories would also have 10 nominees, not 5.

Heck, if they’d “opened it up” to 20 movies, maybe the Star Trek movie would have made it, among the lower ten below the first ten. And the some could rejoice how “historic” it would be that three sci-fi films were nominated (three out of 20), ignoring the gimmickry that destroyed comparisons with history.

- George Gassaway
 
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Wow, I didn't think this would be such a controversial subject...

To say there have "always" been five nominees is incorrect, there have been as many as 12 nominees for best picture in the past.

Anyhow, I thought it was pretty cool, that's all. :pop:
 
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