The Oscars Are Adding An "Outstanding Popular Film" Category Next Year
Vanity Fair- The film Academy just announced a series of changes that will, presumably, change how the Oscars are done forever. On Wednesday, president John Bailey and C.E.O. Dawn Hudson announced that three key changes have been made for future ceremonies. The changes include: shortening the telecast to a firm three hours, setting an earlier date for the ceremony itself (92nd Oscars will be Feb. 9, 2020), and, most importantly, adding a new category for outstanding achievement in popular film. It’s the first time a new category has been announced since 2001, when best animated feature was added to the awards slate.
GREAT news hitting us on this beautiful Wednesday afternoon. Not only are the Oscars deciding to go the route of the Grammys/Tonys in not televising EVERY award (seriously, I appreciate sound mixers and editors and all the short films in the land but I don’t need to see these people I’ve never heard of and will never hear of again on my television every year only for The Academy to give them 10 seconds before the orchestra kicks in), but they’re now adding a “People’s Choice” type award masked as “Outstanding Popular Film”, which I’m more than okay with. The first thought that came to mind when I read this was actually, “Fuck! The Force Awakens and The Dark Knight woulda had that shit locked up!”, and I’ve seen many others with very similar mindsets towards this change. I don’t think they could ask for a better reaction than that. People are STOKED and only asking why this didn’t happen sooner. The answer to that question is because The Academy is run by the same old crusty white people who run Augusta National, but hey, they did something right today so I won’t harp on ‘em too much.
With all of that being said, now, what flick do we think will win the Inaugural “Outstanding Popular Film” Oscar?
‘Black Panther’ has it locked up for my money, not only because of the cultural/historical significance of the film, but also because of the quality of it, with literally only ‘Infinity War’ standing in its way (which I enjoyed more and was a more impressive feat to pull off, but lacked the impact ‘Black Panther’ did), but I could see ‘Mission Impossible: Fallout’, ‘The Incredibles 2′, and ‘Ready Player One’ getting the other three noms easily. ‘Deadpool 2′ and ‘A Quiet Place’ are the other dark horses for me, not to win, but just to receive nominations, and obviously we’re only a little past the halfway point of 2018 so other flicks could burst onto the scene and shake things up in the next 5 months, but right now I’m just excited for this little breath of fresh air added to the Oscars.