2015 Oscar Nominees

     The oscar nominees were announced about a week ago. Here is the full list of all the nominees and categories. The list contains multiple disappointments. This year has clear oscar bait films. Some nominations are: American Sniper, The Theory Of Everything, Selma, Birdman, Boyhood, Whiplash, and The Imitation Game, and the Grand Budapest Hotel were nominated for Best Picture. Alejandro G. Iñárritu - Birdmad, Richard Linklater - Boyhood, Bennet Miller - Foxcatcher, Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel, and  Morten Tyldum - The Imitation Game, were nominated for Best Director. Steve Carell, Bradley Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Keaton, and Eddie Redmayne were nominated for Best Actor. 
     The Lego Movie deserved an animation nomination since it was creative and well made film earning a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. David Fincher should have been nominated for Best Director or Gone Girl maybe should have received a Best Editing nomination and especially Best Adapted Screenplay. While Bradley Cooper got a nomination for his oscar bait, mediocre film, American Sniper, Jake Gyllenhaal was forgotten for his excellent role in Nightcrawler. American Sniper did not deserve any of it's nominations. It was a decent film at most, but 6 nominations is beyond excessive. The two biggest disappointments were Interstellar and Selma because they were evidently snubbed. Interstellar completely deserves more than nominations for technical awards. The fact that it wasn't nominated for Best Original Screenplay is downright insulting, let alone other nominations it should have received. Additionally Selma only received two nominations yet this movie is a beautiful cinematic masterpiece. The outrage from it being snubbed even started the #OscarSoWhite hashtag on Twitter. It's hard to disagree when the best actors and directors are all white men, and most of the best pictures nominees are about white men with complicated genius profiles. 

Oscars (January 15, 2015), Nominees-the 87th Academy Award Nominations for the 2014 Oscars; Retrieved from: http://oscar.go.com/nominees

Major Distribution Companies of the Motion Picture Industry

     This article talks about specific motion picture distribution companies, and the power of these companies. A distribution company often finances a product and distributes it to the public. Viacom, and Time Warner Inc., Fox Entertainment Group, The Walt Disney Company, Universal Studios Group, and Sony Corporation are the 6 largest distribution companies for motion pictures. 
     Viacom includes Paramount Pictures which is one of the first major motion picture studios. They have released Forrest Gump, The Godfather, and the Ten Commandments. 
     Time Warner Inc. is one of the largest entertainment conglomerations. Some subsets include Warner Brothers, and New Line Cinema which are "two of the leading motion picture distribution companies existing today."
     Fox Entertainment Group is involved in development, production, and worldwide distribution of films, and tv programs. One of this subsets is Twentieth Century Fox Film which has released Star Wars Episode 1, and Entrapment. 
     The Walt Disney Company has expanded drastically from cartoons to now even vacation resorts.  Miramax is a distribution company owned by Disney . Oversees, Buena Vista International is responsible for distributing Disney films. Buena Vista has also released Pulp Fiction, Life is Beautiful, and the Sixth Sense to name some. 
     Universal Studios Group is one of the largest entertainment companies in the nation. Within it Universal Pictures represents the films. It often works closely with Jersey Films.
     Sony Corporation is one of the largest international corporations. From movies, tv, video, dvd, cable, music and electronics. Within this company, films are represented by Sony Pictures Entertainment, and it works closely with Columbia Pictures and Tri-Star Pictures. 
     "The power of the industry is very much dominated in the distribution companies, for the product, the film, can not be completely produced without the finances and influence of the distribution company. These vast entertainment conglomerates very much dominate the industry because they do have more clout with theater owners and TV networks...They can offer brand name recognition to the viewer, and have more connections to the creative talent and experience with effective management." Cleary, distribution companies hold immense power of the content that they wish to distribute and how the public will view it.


Major Distribution Companies of the Motion Picture Industry; Retrieved from: http://www.soc.duke.edu/~s142tm05/corporate.htm#whatisadistributioncompany

Bias in Oscar Nominated Films

     This article talks about the bias in Oscar nominated films. (The key thing to note is that it is bias) It has an extensive chart of the the movies that were nominated and which genre they were in. The conclusion of this article is that there seems to be a pattern of the movies that officially win best picture. A series of factors such as "the release date of the film (late in the year is best), whether or not it was distributed by a major studio, and whether the actors, writers, and directors of the film have previous Oscar nominations. Another factor is the theme or content of the film -- which is represented by the film's genre and its major plot keywords (such as "Pulitzer Prize-winning" or "family tragedy" or "race relations")."
     General trends that I found were interesting were that "studio pictures with big stars - are much preferred over quirky independent films." Additionally "science-fiction films don't win the Best Picture award. " This was surprising considered that science fiction has many films under this category. Great movies such as District 9, and 2001: A space Odyssey. Interstellar was released late last year and I believe it was one of the best movies of 2014. The fact that science fiction movies don't win and it is typically always drama films that do can hinder some filmmakers away from science fiction. Maybe drama films are better or maybe there is a hidden agenda within the Oscar community.

Tim Durks (2013), Academy Awards Best Picture Genre Biases. Retrieved from http://www.filmsite.org/bestpics2.html.

Gender Gap in Academy Award Movies

     Our lives can easily, and are, affected by our gender. Kevin Lee addresses gender in Academy nominated films in this article. Consequently  being female or male dictates the role you receive and how often you may appear on screen. For example, "male stars are typically the protagonists in action or goal-oriented narratives that require the viewer to follow the story through the lead’s experiences. Female stars are more typically cast in melodramas that require the lead to serve as a hub connecting different characters and subplots." This correlation should be reflected on how it may affect our daily lives and perception of gender roles in society.  
        "This year’s lead actors average 85 minutes on screen, but lead actresses average only 57 minutes." These are all lead actors yet the difference on screen based on gender is staggering.  One theory proposed by the film scholar Laura Mulvey is that “in a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female, with the male gaze dominating the dynamic." A dominant female presence in films is vital. Yet most films fail the Bechdel Test or the Mo Movie Measure which is a type of litmus test to assess the presence of women in movies.
     Given the widespread viewing, and effects,  of the entertainment industry, and all that it entails beyond simple screen time, these facts support a reality that we as a society should be beyond, or at least changing at this time.  Instead, we continue to see these trends, with little change. With all the progress we are making today, why are we stuck here?

Kevin B. Lee. (February 27, 2014), The Gender Gap in Screen Time.  Retrieved from http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/movies/awardsseason/cinemetrics-extracts-statistical-data-from-movies.html?hpw&rref=arts&_r=1&referrer=

Why Marketing for the Oscars is Vital

    The Oscars is the largest film award show of the year. Even without the trophy, everyone walks home a winner. This article is very informative over why marketing is important and how it affects the film industry. People who market their film "spend from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars promoting their films for an Oscar nomination." It may seem excessive but just getting the nomination boosts their revenues drastically. And if the film wins an award for Best Actress or Actor, " talent agents and managers estimate that their clients will get a 20% boost in pay for their next film" This is extremely important to take note of because if the film has more money for marketing their chances of getting a nomination is far larger than an independent film. 
     But if the film wins the award for Best Picture then it's revenues worldwide can more than double. For instance when "the King’s Speech was initially projected to gross $30 million worldwide. After receiving 12 Academy Award nominations, the revised estimate was over $200 million. After winning the Oscar for best picture, its worldwide box office surpassed $427 million with domestic DVD sales adding nearly another $32 million." This is astounding, no wonder marketing for a film is so excessive. 

Ira Kalb, ( FEB. 13, 2013, 1:54 PM) Here's How Much Hollywood Studios And Stars Can Earn By Winning An Oscar Retrieved from: http://www.businessinsider.com/oscarnomics-2013-how-much-is-oscar-really-worth-2013-2

What Influences the Films We see

     Google and Millward Brown Digital conducted a study on what influences the films we see and turned it into a lovely and simple infographic. This study stems from youtube and how it affects moviegoers in drama, comedy, horror, family, action, and some franchise. Interesting facts such as "people who saw horror most cared about convenient showtimes" and "people who watched trailers on youtube on family were more likely to watch content about movie soundtracks" were included in the infographic. 

     In terms of marketing, it is always vital to know what certain moviegoers ask or look for in a film. If a total of 228.7 million people went to the movie theaters last year then companies such as Warner Bros or Disney will alter what they do to get the most viewers. This changes how and where the film is marketed. Because if people who watched youtube trailers about a franchise film also watched videos about comics then movie ads would be placed on the comic book video's page. If people who watched action mostly cared about the director, then a Michael Bay film would excite them unlike drama viewers since they would actually care about the plot. Everything we do affects what we choose to see, which clearly alters what is put in front of us by the people who know this information.  

Google, Millward Brown Digital, (October 2014). Behind the Box Office: What Influences the Films We See. Retrieved from http://think.storage.googleapis.com/docs/behind-the-box-office_infographics.pdf 

How are Oscar Nominees Chosen?

     This article explains the step by step process of how the vote takes place. First a producer or distributor must submit it into consideration by December 2. The film has to fulfill a certain criteria: "The film must be over 40 minutes in length; must be publicly screened for paid admission in Los Angeles County (with the name of a particular theater where it screened included); and must screen for a qualifying run of at least seven straight days. In addition, the film cannot have its premiere outside of a theatrical run." Then each of the 6028 members of the Academy list 5 names and PriceWaterCooper looks for the names that meet a certain number. The number stems from taking “the total number of ballots received for a particular category and divides it by the total possible nominees plus one."

     The Oscars is the most famous award show of the year yet most people don't have a clue to how the process of nominating the countless of movies released that given year are chosen. The article explains the process while noting interesting facts. It's always vital to know who is in charge of choosing the select few to go into running. Most importantly noted is that only those in the business can vote (Hutchison, 2014). And not just in the business but "Aside from requiring an “unusually high level of quality and distinction” in their respective fields, candidates must also meet quantitative standards. Writers, producers, and directors must have at least two screen credits to their names, while actors must have credited roles in at least three films." In a way, this is good because those that fulling understand the film can vote but because its a few elite, some people can bought. As said in the article "the Academy instructs voters to follow their hearts". Yet hearts can easily be 'persuaded'.

Sean Hutchinson, (January 16, 2014 - 9:00am) How are Oscar Nominees Chosen? Retrieved from http://mentalfloss.com/article/54560/how-are-oscar-nominees-chosen