Off the Shelf

Academy Awards will have some surprises

Off+the+Shelf

Mark Luetkehoelter and Kelly Minica, Librarians

The Academy Awards are coming up Feb. 24, and there are some films nominated you wouldn’t have expected in the past.

An article by Stephanie Zacharek in the Jan. 14  issue of Time entitled “What makes an ‘Oscar movie’ in 2019?” points to two big reasons why.

One reason is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), because of declining viewership of the Oscars, seriously considered adding a new category called Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film for this year. Ultimately, that didn’t happen, but the influence in the nominations can be seen.

The other reason is that voting membership in AMPAS increased by over 900 members in recent years, with the significant percentage of those numbers being women or minorities. This has perhaps led to a change in the canon of what constitutes an award-winning film.

A Feb. 8 report in the library’s subscription database CQ Researcher entitled “Movie industry disruption” addresses those factors and adds that digital and streaming option factors have pushed studios even more into creating and rewarding popular films. In 2018, according to Comscore, popular at the box office meant superheroes.

Perhaps no bigger example of the combination of those factors is Black Panther, nominated for best film. Not only is it a superhero film, but a film with superheroes we don’t usually see. Whatever your opinion on the quality of the film, it does open up what constitutes an “Oscar-worthy film” to more diverse and creative possibilities in the future.

The director of Black Panther, Ryan Coogler, mentioned in a 2013 BuzzFeed interview that when he was starting out in film school, already a fan of Spielberg and Scorsese, his formative moment came when he saw the Brazilian crime drama City of God, which he said really expanded his mind. Wanting to expand more, he spent time in the library watching all sorts of diverse films from around the world.

The Madison College Libraries strive to maintain a diverse collection, from our books and videos to the streaming alternative film database Kanopy. We hope, that like Ryan Coogler, it allows you to really expand your mind and perhaps create an Oscar-nominated film someday.

Speaking of the Oscars, we are excited to tell you about STREAM: Screenings of Thoughtful, Relevant, Engaging, and Artful Movies. STREAM will be an on-going film event, highlighting films from our amazing streaming media databases, including Kanopy.

Join us Thursday, Feb. 21, starting at 2 p.m., for an opportunity to watch three recent award-winning short films, played on a loop for two hours in the Truax Library Commons.

While the Academy Awards deliver accolades to numerous feature films each year, not to be forgotten are the smaller scale cinema-styles—the Oscar short films (animated and live action).