Awards season is upon us and as every film geek knows it is
a grand celebration of all the achievements made in Western (okay mostly
American) film over the past twelve months. Saying that, it’s also a chance for
every aforementioned film geek plus critics and casual observers to gripe and
whine about the various “snubs” and omissions and for the nausea inducing,
sycophantic interviews that forms half all of the multi channel coverage, the
other half being those horrific “let’s rip into these otherwise successful and
beautiful women by making offensive comments about their appearance” shows.
I have a love/hate relationship with awards shows. On the
one hand gets everyone talking about films and I have to own up to enjoying my
fair share of glitz and glamour. On the other hand it gets people whinging
about films and the complaints over who has been omitted can overshadow the
glory of those who win.
The best example of this is how the word “snub” becomes the
buzzword on everybody’s lips as soon as the first batch of nominations are out.
There is always outrage that XYZ didn’t make it in or if
Film A was nominated why wasn’t the guy who directed it? This year for example,
Skyfall didn’t receive any Oscar
nominations for its lead actor or director and wasn’t nominated for best
picture. Even at our own BAFTAs Skyfall is trailing behind Lincoln (which hasn’t even been released
in the UK yet, much to the consternation of many British film goers) which got
10 nominations. Director Steven Spielberg has been “snubbed” by both BAFTA and
the Academy who have both left him out of the lists for Best Director. Add into
the mix the same arguments about animation and foreign film that come back year
after year and you start to wonder why anyone bothers. Of course money plays a
huge part as does ego and the fact that many awards and nominations are
politically motivated but there is also the fact that these are good films.
It isn’t helpful to dwell on the negatives and flinging the
word “snub” around just diminishes the achievements made by those who did make
it in to the nominations. So I for one resolve this year to approach awards
season with an open mind and view it as a way to be introduced to new films and
discovered new, thoroughly deserving, talent.
Full list of Academy Award nominees here
Full list of BAFTA nominees here
