The Academy Awards: Why certain films get chosen over others.

This morning the Academy award nominations were released. As usual, Hollywood films were nominated less on the actual outcome of the film but rather on the names behind those pictures. Names like Fincher, Boyle, Coen, Nolan, etc all received vast nominations for their films that year. My interest in these awards come less from the frequent amounts of popular names that are listed but rather the smaller names and the ones that were neglected.

The Golden Globe gives many viewers the idea of who is going to be nominated for the Oscars. And that is true, the same films nominated by the Globes for best picture drama were all included in the ten Best picture nominations for the Oscars. In contrast, only one from the best comedy film side chosen to be included in the ten, that being The Kids are All Right (2010). The other four films seem to be filling the void created by the fact that with the rule change for best picture after the 81st academy awards.

The Academy chose to change the rule because of the number of films that people believed had a chance during 2008. For more information on films released in 2008, check out Film in 2008: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_in_film

Now I love the academy awards. They tend to recognize popular films while at the same time noticing smaller films that would usually go unnoticed. My only complaint on the other hand is that this year the academy has chosen to notice more spectacle based money making films over films which have created a cult following. What I am directly referring to is Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, which was snubbed in my opinion by popular award shows.

Scott Pilgrim has everything. It takes from the aspect of video games and music and adds to the concept of love and hate. It builds off the simple idea of love and makes it a literal battle for the heart of one. It is similar to Inception and Black Swan in that it is a fanatical world that represents a psychological main character. Scott Pilgrim is effected in two ways in different levels. He is first effected by the emotion trauma of his previous breakup. Second, the effect of video games that represents his connection with reality.

Its visual style to me was sure to receive a nomination for Visual Effects or Film Editing, possibly Art direction. Instead, films like Alice in Wonderland and the new Harry Potter got nominations. I believe Scott Pilgrim to be better because it is not fully overpowered by its effects and editing. Most of Scott Pilgrims effects were done for the sake of battle scenes that don't overtake the pure emotions of the situations. My disgust with the two nominations is that its all been done and recognized before. Wonderland was filmed 90% with GreenScreen, mostly from digitalization. In case for their nomination is because of the magnitude of animation done. My retort however would be that quantity is not as important as quality. Scott Pilgrim has a much cleaner and more effective set of effects. Another argument could be that because Wonderland is 90% animated, it should not be included as being "visual effects" because case in point, its all an illusion so it is therefore not an effect, but a constant. For Harry Potter the animation is the same with each film.

Film Editing is an absolute for Scott Pilgrim. The academy tends to side with the continuity editing that was favored in the Traditional Hollywood Narrative from 1915-1960. Films like The Social Network follow along with these rules without holding any significant form upon its own which make it unique. I'm not insulting The Social Network, I throughly enjoyed the film, but its editing style is not as good as Pilgrim. In Scott Pilgrim, editing is rapid in succession. It uses time and space to create an opposing recognition of the mental state of the protagonist, Scott. His mind becomes clustered and therefore the film is presented in the way his mind is remembering and recognizing situations. The scene where he is dreaming of Ramona is met with him playing a song with the band, when he is asked something he jumps back into that reality only to be met in a different place, walking along a Toronto street complaining about a party they are going to attend. I feel that Edgar Wright did a masterful job in creating a scene that by using the dialog was able condense time and space so that events would conenside with the process of Scott's mind. That particular scene reminded me of the lightning mix used in Citizen Kane to show the passage of time, where music and voice over is used to connect events in time, going from Kane's childhood to him as a young adult. This is only one scene in Scott Pilgrim that offers interesting and well thought out editing.

Now not all the nominations upset me. I was very happy to hear the nominations for The Kids are All Right. I felt that the film might of been ignored because it was a summer release. I still wish that Lisa Cholodenko had recieved a directing nomination because she formed together a great film. She in my mind should replace the Coen brother on the list. I feel the Coen brothers offer very little when it comes to actual skill. My distain for them started when I first watched No Country for Old Men, which I consider to be a bad film because its events are loosely held together and in some ways almost untracable through the plot. I understood the plot, which was based off the book of the same name, but felt the film was a weak attempt at recreating it.

I do comment the academy for their array of new directors nominated, which includes Darren Aronofsky, David O. Russell and Tom Hooper. I feel that Edgar Wright deserves a bit of recognition for his work. He has a consistent vision for his films that he delivers. His other films like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz offer the same editing style and rapid pace that is appreciated in the indie film scene and should be more recognized by the Academy.

I really wish that Scott Pilgrim had been more recognized because of its artistic style and great direction, but the fact is that it wasn't included. This could do in some parts to the mixed reviews it received in the US and the poor ticket sales at the box office. However the case, I hope that I made a strong argument as to why Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World deserves to be recognizes as one of the best films of 2010.