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Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film

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Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film
Awarded forOutstanding Achievement in Popular Film
CountryUnited States
Presented byAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
Websiteoscars.org

The Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film (or the Academy Award for Best Popular Film) was a proposed award to be presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It was announced as a new category by the Academy on August 8, 2018.[1][2][3]

The following month, AMPAS announced that the award would not be presented at the 91st Academy Awards as planned. It would be postponed to "examine and seek additional input regarding the new category".[4]

History

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On August 8, 2018, the Academy announced a proposal to establish a new category reflecting outstanding achievements in "popular" film, being the first new category announced since Best Animated Feature Film in 2001. Although no details were provided, media outlets suggested that the category was intended primarily for blockbuster films with mainstream appeal.[5] Films nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film would also be eligible for Best Picture.[6]

The following month, the Academy announced that the award would not be presented at the 91st Academy Awards as planned. It would be postponed to "examine and seek additional input regarding the new category".[4] In November 2018, Academy president John Bailey confirmed the award was created in direct response to the Oscars telecast's diminishing television ratings. He hoped it might still be instituted. "Even after a stake was driven through its heart," he said, "there's still interest." He drew a comparison to the separate Best Picture awards presented at the 1st Academy Awards, where Wings won Outstanding Picture and Sunrise won Unique and Artistic Picture.[7]

Reception

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The announcement of a Popular Film category was met with backlash from journalists and Academy members alike.[8] Many viewed it as a conspicuous attempt to pander to mainstream audiences, in the hopes of increasing annual ratings.[9][10][11] The category was criticized for diminishing blockbuster films' chances at receiving a Best Picture nomination.[12][13][14] The name of the category was further criticized, with "popular" suggesting that films nominated in other categories were unpopular or not of interest to mainstream audiences.[15] Bob Chipman at Escapist Magazine said that the frontrunner for the inaugural prize would be Black Panther, a film with a predominantly African-American cast and, considering its prominence within African-American culture, would effectively receive a "separate but equal" Best Picture award.[14]

By contrast, Gene Del Vecchio, author of Creating Blockbusters and who is on the faculty of the USC Marshall School of Business, has been a proponent of an Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement among Blockbusters for quite some time. His opinion appeared in an April 2014 Huffington Post article,[16] then again in two 2018 articles for USA Today, one in March[17] and one in August,[18] and finally in a November 2019 column in The Hollywood Reporter.[19] He said that a Best Blockbuster Film category marks a "return to the roots" of the Oscars. From the 1940s to the 1970s, the Best Picture Oscar went to a top-10 box office blockbuster nearly nine times out of ten. Comparatively, Best Picture would not be awarded to a top 10 box office film until Oppenheimer at the 96th Academy Awards in 2024, for the first time in two decades since the 76th Academy Awards in 2004.[20]

References

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  1. ^ Feinberg, Scott (August 8, 2018). "Oscars Won't Televise All Awards, Adds Popular Film Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 3, 2016. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  2. ^ Lang, Brent; Rubin, Rebecca (August 8, 2018). "Academy Adds Popular Film Category, Sets Three-Hour Oscar Broadcast". Variety. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  3. ^ Travis, Ben (August 8, 2018). "Oscars Creating 'Popular Film' Category In Academy Awards Reform". Empire. Archived from the original on October 23, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  4. ^ a b Kilday, Gregg (September 6, 2018). "Academy Postponing New Popular Oscar Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 3, 2016. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  5. ^ Lee, Benjamin (August 8, 2018). "Oscars: Academy to add achievement in popular film category". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 19, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  6. ^ Sharf, Zack (August 8, 2018). "Oscars: The Academy Confirms Movies Eligible for Best Popular Film Can Also Compete for Best Picture". IndieWire. Archived from the original on August 14, 2018. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
  7. ^ Desta, Yohana (November 13, 2018). "The Best-Popular-Film Oscar Was an Attempt to Save Ratings, Academy President Confirms". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on November 29, 2018. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
  8. ^ Tapley, Kristopher (August 8, 2018). "Academy Members React to 'Popular' Oscar News: 'The Film Business Passed Away Today'". Variety. Archived from the original on August 26, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  9. ^ Zacharek, Stephanie (August 8, 2018). "The Oscars' New 'Popular Film' Category Confirms That Hollywood Thinks We're Stupid". Time. Archived from the original on August 9, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  10. ^ Buchanan, Kyle (August 8, 2018). "The Oscars Made Some Dumb Decisions Today". Vulture. Archived from the original on August 28, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  11. ^ Robey, Tim (August 9, 2018). "The new 'Best Hit' Oscar makes the Academy look desperate, patronising and more out of touch than ever". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on August 14, 2018. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
  12. ^ Sharf, Zack (August 8, 2018). "Oscars Slammed by Film Journalists for Creating 'Best Popular Film' Category, Especially in the Year of 'Black Panther'". IndieWire. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  13. ^ Hamer, Robert (August 13, 2018). "The Academy Awards shot themselves in the foot". CC2K. Archived from the original on February 9, 2019. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
  14. ^ a b Chipman, Bob (August 20, 2018). "The Big Picture: Polarity Contest". Escapist Magazine. Archived from the original on August 20, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2018.
  15. ^ VanDerWerff, Emily (August 9, 2018). "The Oscars' new "popular film" category is a bad idea from a panicked organization". Vox. Archived from the original on August 26, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  16. ^ Vecchio, Gene Del (February 18, 2014). "Surprise! Oscars for Best Picture Were Often Awarded to Blockbusters". HuffPost. Archived from the original on October 14, 2019. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  17. ^ Vecchio, Gene Del (August 8, 2018). "Flashback: It's time to create an Academy Award for best blockbuster". USA TODAY. Archived from the original on October 14, 2019. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  18. ^ Vecchio, Gene Del (August 25, 2018). "New Oscar category for best popular film marks a long overdue change in the Academy". USA TODAY. Archived from the original on October 14, 2019. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  19. ^ Vecchio, Gene Del (November 4, 2019). "Why the Oscars Should Revive the Best Blockbuster Idea (Guest Column)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 10, 2019. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
  20. ^ McClintock, Pamela (March 11, 2024). "Oscars: 'Oppenheimer' Lifts 20-Year Curse on Blockbusters Winning Best Picture". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 11, 2024. Retrieved March 14, 2024.

See also

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