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.
I was fully enticed with this article about the bias in Oscar nominations. The minor appearance of comedy, science fiction, or independent films listed as Oscar nominees have normally stood out to me. I have always been curious of the qualities that attribute a film to be worthy of an Oscar. This article opened my mind to the hidden agenda of the Oscars.
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