“Popular” Oscar Is Elitist
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has added a new award: for most “popular” movie. Slate responds: ‘Creating a category that segregates popular films from more elevated fare hardly seems like an improvement or likely to keep the academy relevant, since it calls attention to the awards’ elitism rather than actually broadening their appeal. If the academy really wants to make the Oscars more appealing to a wider audience, it should consider just recognizing the artistic merit of deserving popular films instead of cordoning them off in their own category. After all, wasn’t that part of the justification for expanding the Best Picture category in 2009, that having more than five nominees would allow room for both obscure indies and more popular fare that might be squeezed out of the race?’ “Black Panther” is pictured.
