The 81st Annual Academy Awards

Cafe Society
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It’s more like due to the fact that it’s a total black box one can reasonably assume it’s not meant to be a fair competition. Legitimate competitions (like say, the Olympics) have judging criteria which are made known beforehand, and they have scores by judges who openly rate contestants on those criteria with justifications for their deductions. The Academy makes no pretense whatsoever of aspiring to these standards.

One might argue that they conduct it in this manner to keep the results from leaking before the ceremony, but I can’t buy that either because they release no information about how they came to their voting decisions even after the fact.

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A thing of beauty is a joy forever. I think I kinda love Mr. Rourke now.

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I loved that he gave a serious shout out to Eric Roberts. I’ve liked him ever since the wonderful King of the Gypsies and I hope that someone does give him a great role too. The whiny bad guy in The Dark Knight doesn’t count.

WOAH. I just checked Eric Roberts’ IMDB page and he’s got a ton of projects coming up. Some are low-budget schlock, but others look very interesting (like The Spy and the Sparrow) so maybe one will do it for him.

Rourke and Roberts will be working together soon. They’re both in Sylvester Stallone’s (written and directed) movie The Expendables. What a bizarre and interesting cast. Besides those two (three, including Stallone), you have Sandra Bullock, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, Ben Kingsley, Danny Trejo and Forest Whitaker! Some are only rumored but still. I’m so there.

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Are you blurring the distinction between the Academy administration, and the Academy members? Because when you talk about “they release no information about how they came to their voting decisions”, I wonder if you understand that hundreds of Academy members make the nominations, and thousands of Academy members vote on the winners.* Each person votes privately.

You make it sound like the Academy administration chooses the nominees and the winners after meeting in a smoke-filled room.

  • The exceptions: nominees and winners in the documentary, short film, and foreign language categories.
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Exactly. You have Bjork sitting at her office desk in Reykjavik (or London). You have Peter Jackson, sitting at his office desk in Wellington, New Zealand. You have Danny Elfman, sitting at his kitchen table in Los Angeles. You have Nicole Kidman, sitting in her living room chair in Nashville. You have Russell Crowe, sitting at his dining room table in Australia. On and on and on. It’s individual people, filling out their nomination forms and, later, final ballots, privately, then mailing it in. Sure, some have others help them fill out their ballots but that’s against the rules and could (rightly) get them kicked out of the Academy.

Even I’m guilty of saying “the Academy” when I talk about them, but the organization of AMPAS, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is not a monolithic entity that chooses nominees and winners like a hive mind. It’s a bunch of individual people, scattered around the world, filling out ballots.

Yep. The nominees are chosen by committees, and then once the nominations are announced, only people who can prove they’ve seen the foreign language films/docs/shorts can vote on them. With any other category, there’s no way of knowing if someone voted without seeing the film or not, but in those categories, you can know for sure that the voters saw what they voted on.

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It doesn’t really matter how many people are voting. There are no established criteria, no oversight, no justifications, no consistency, and no information given to the public on the process. It may as well be decided in a smoke-filled room by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg for all we know.

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Not true.

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Can you point me to where that link has detailed information about the judging process? All I see is a list of the awards they give out and rules for promoting a film to be considered.

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Rules & Eligibility for the 81st Academy Awards.

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Say they made you a member of the Academy tomorrow. How would you judge? What would be your criteria? How would you vote, and why? Answer those questions and you’ve answered your own question about the “judging process.”

Each individual chooses for themselves what’s important. They may know more about film than you or I, but it still comes down to personal choice. Other than choosing what’s eligible, there are no rules they have to follow, at least, in the final balloting phase.

During the nomination phase, branch nominates branch. Only AMPAS member actors can nominate the acting categories. Only Art Directors can nominate for Art Direction. Only Directors can nominate directors. Only Sound Editors can nominate in the sound editing category. Only Costume Designers can nominate costume designers. And so on. Everyone can nominate Best Picture. Only special juries, as noted, can nominate Foreign Language, Documentaries and shorts.

Ever hear the adage “It’s an honor just to be nominated”? It’s unfortunately become somewhat of a scornful cliche, accompanied by an eyeroll and “yeah, sure, right” tone of voice. That’s so undeserved. Of course nominated people would actually want to win and might be disappointed if they don’t, but because your nomination is chosen by your direct peers (actors, sound mixers, cinematographers, etc.) it REALLY IS an honor to be nominated. Seriously, absolutely, no kidding and no eyerolls needed. Ask any nominated person who didn’t win if they would rather be nominated and not win, or not be nominated at all. NO ONE is going to say not be nominated at all. That phrase is only ever said in a scornful manner by people who’ve never ever been nominated for an Academy Award.

Anyway,

Once the nominations are out, then everybody votes for everything, except the previously-mentioned special categories (foreign/docs/shorts).

Do you know anything about Sound mixing? No? Then who would you vote for and why? Answer that and you’ve answered your own question about the “judging process.” Because you’re in the same boat as 98% of the other Academy voters.

Yes, this does point out that people often vote for their friends, and/or things they just like regardless of actual merit (though if it was nominated, merit was there). That’s what they do.

Whatever your criteria is for how they should vote would only apply to you in how* you* would vote, if you were one of them. Each 5000+ voting member of the Academy has their own ideas and ways and reasons for voting the way they do. Tally the votes, and somehow, you come out with a winner, revealed on Oscar night.