Welcome to the weekly movie thread, your weekly home where we talk about films! What did you see this week? A new theatrical release? A new film on Netflix? Or a classic that you’ve just caught up to for the first time?
The Academy Award nominees were announced yesterday, so it’s time for our month long speculation to commence. Sometimes, even just being nominated is good enough.
Then there are the films who don’t get even that.
“The Dark Knight’s Oscar snub a disgrace,” were the Guardian headlines in 2008. Such was the sentiment of many nerds, who took the Academy to task for not recognizing superhero movies. Heath Ledger’s posthumous Oscar win was not enough of a consolation prize … and a mixed one at that. Presumably, these were the same fans who gave Heath Ledger a hard time for being given the role when the movie first came out.
But forget that. Where was The Dark Knight, Oscars?
It’s easy to dismiss the uproar as nerds being nerds, but the cumulative online backlash did have an actual impact. The very next year, the Academy expanded it nominations from 5 movies to 10. As mentioned in a New York Times article:
In a question-and-answer session that followed the announcement, [Academy president Sidney] Ganis said: “I would not be telling you the truth if I said the words ‘Dark Knight’ did not come up.”
When it comes down to it, the uproar directly led to Batman’s nemesis getting nominated for Best Picture yesterday.
So today’s prompt, let’s talk about everyone’s favorite topic whenever these nominations come out: What are the biggest Academy snubs of all time? It need not be Best Picture. All categories are up for examination!
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