There have been a lot of controversies about Best Actor/Actress/Picture Oscars over the years. But what about the other (for lack of a better word “technical”) awards? Has there been Cinematography, Costume, Makeup, or Score awards that have been widely mocked? What films that excelled in these categories have been considered robbed for Oscars?
This has been done before so sorry for using my go-to example.
The original* Planet of the Apes* won for outstanding make-up achievement. Which prompted someone from 2001 to wonder if the voters thought they used real apes?
One year, Best Makeup went to the French film “Cyrano de Bergerac” starring Gerard Depardieu.
The ONLY noteworthy makeup was Depardieu’s nose. And since Depardieu already HAS a big nose, it didn’t seem all that impressive.
Visual Effects is a pretty good place to look.
Golden Compass beat Pirates 3 in this category. Critique Pirates 3 all you want, but the final 45 minutes alone still hold up as the best special effect sequencea of all time. It was the first time since Return of the Jedi that all of ILM worked on one movie.
This category also includes hairstyling and there is a mountain of period hairstyling work throughout that film, so this “nose” criticism is glib nonsense. Makeup is more than just “Best prosthetic”.
The music branch was forced to completely re-evaluate its eligibility criteria after Herbie Hancock’s 'Round Midnight beat the heavily favored Ennio Morricone’s The Mission for Original Score, because it was believed by many that the former had so many jazz standards scattered throughout the film that the voters weren’t able to distinguish between what was “original” and what was not. It’s certainly not the first example of this (Georges Delerue’s win for the Vivaldi-heavy A Little Romance is another conspicuous example) and while the solution has been inelegant and imperfect, there’s little question now when a film has a score that the work you hear is predominantly (while still not exclusively) original.
There was criticism over the cinematography branch snubbing Gordon Willis’ work in ‘Klute’ (1971), ‘The Godfather’ (1972), ‘The Godfather Part II’ (1974), ‘All the President’s Men’ (1976), ‘Annie Hall’ (1977) and ‘Manhattan’ (1979) before finally nominating him for ‘Zelig’ (1983)
I’ve heard complaints that the costume awards often go to the obvious, over-the-top choices - period pieces with lots of large frilly dresses, fantasy/sci-fi, etc. - while technically excellent work done in movies with more contemporary/less sumptuous settings is ignored.
Well, that’s a general complaint about many categories. Cinematography often meant “most scenic” or “best landscapes” regardless of the nuances of lighting or composition. Similarly, the Sound awards have often been “the loudest” (hence so many war film victories) instead of the most complex or nuanced. Probably the most ridiculous example of the latter was when EARTHQUAKE (with the gimmicky “Sensurround”) beat THE CONVERSATION in best Sound Mixing, since that is a film whose entire plot is about the complexity and layering of sound. But Big & Loud won out.
And to be honest, since almost everything besides Mowgli himself in THE JUNGLE BOOK was digitally created, why isn’t that more Best Animated Feature instead of Best Visual Effects (which have always historically meant to augment shot footage instead of making it all up in a computer)?
Which is also true of any number of acting Oscars to dark horse contenders. Most “OMG, Blank took best supporting!” surprises involve emoting that would embarrass Sarah Bernhardt… not nuanced brilliance. Yes, I’m thinking of someone recent in particular.
How long are the technicians each given to spout off their political opinions ?
Arthur C. Clarke made that remark, and I think he was a bit misinformed. The Academy did not award a competitive Oscar for makeup until 1981. The Oscar that Planet of the Apes received was an honorary award that the producers had lobbied for. There were no other nominees and no vote was taken.
I don’t know what percentage of the score for The Artist was original but it wasn’t enough in my opinion. Certainly none of the scenes that got audiences reacting to the score used original music. When that hack won the Oscar for Best Original Score, I threw up in my mouth a little. The estate of Bernard Herrmann should have had someone waiting in the wings to snatch the statue immediately.