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The End Of Injustice: Pixar Finally Given A Best Picture Nomination
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Animation, Awards
Back at the 64th Academy Awards in 1991 a ground shaking event occurred in the world of film that had never happened before, and until this week had never happened since. Up against the stiff competition of films like "Bugsy", "JFK", "The Prince of Tides" and "The Silence of the Lambs" (the eventual winner of the Best Picture award) stood an ANIMATED film... "The Beauty and the Beast".
It was the first time in history an animated film had ever been nominated for the top prize at the Oscars. Think about that for a moment. Not "Cinderella". Not "Snow White". Not "Pinocchio". Not "Bambi" and not even "Sleeping Beauty". None of these memorable films that have become a part of our collective culture and have endured for 60+ years had ever even been nominated for best picture.
"The Beauty and the Beast" burst onto the scene in all of its wonderful beauty, it's memorable music, its intense laughter, its touching moments and its glorious characters and the drought was at long last ended. Could this mark the beginning of the Academy embracing animated films as legitimate members of the cinematic community?
Sadly no. On the contrary, it marked the beginning of a cinematic version of segregation.
There were those in the film community who scorned the idea that an animated film could be nominated for "Best Picture" at the Oscars and hated the fact that "Beauty and the Beast" was nominated at all. Not because it lacked the required quality and magic that a Best Picture nominee should have, but rather simply based on the fact that the medium used to tell the story was animation. And so, in 2001 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences created the "Best Animated Feature" category as a proverbial "ghetto" to sweep animated films into.
The only requirement for a "Best Animated Feature" award to be given out at the Oscars was that there had to be a minimum of 8 animated feature films made that year. What that means is if you made a feature length animated film... you stood a 40% chance of getting nominated for an Oscar. Congratulations.
The Academy thought their "problem" had been solved and that the controversy over animated films at the Oscars would quietly go away. However, as the quality of animated films began to grow in leaps and bounds, the questions began to rise again.
DID YOU KNOW, THAT SINCE 1999 THE #1 CRITICALLY RATED FILMS OF THE YEAR HAVE BEEN ANIMATED FILMS EIGHT TIMES?
That's worth repeating - Since 1999 the #1 critically rated films of the year have been animated films 8 times.
According to Rotten Tomatoes (a website that compiles and averages the reviews of multiple-hundreds of film critics from television, print and the internet):
1999 - The #1 critically rated film of the year was Pixar's "Toy Story 2". Not even a nomination for Best Picture.
2000 - The #1 critically rated film of the year was "Chicken Run" (the only film on this list not from Pixar Studios), and yet not nominated for Best Picture.
2001 - The #1 critically rated film of the year was "Monster's Inc". Not nominated for Best Picture.
2003 - The #1 critically rated film of the year was "Finding Nemo". Not nominated for Best Picture.
2004 - The #1 critically rated film of the year was "The Incredibles". Not nominated for Best Picture.
2007 - The #1 critically rated film of the year was "Ratatouille". Not nominated for Best Picture.
2008 - The #1 critically rated film of the year was "Wall-E". Not nominated for Best Picture.
It should be noted that the non-animated #1 critically rated films of 2002 ("The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"), and 2006 ("The Queen") were both nominated for "Best Picture" at the Oscars in their respective years. 2005's documentary "Murderball" was not.
Several film pundits (including myself) began asking how such a situation could exist? According to the Academy, animated films were still ELIGIBLE for the "Best Picture" award at the Oscars... and yet none of them were being even nominated.
There would be those who would argue (like segregationists) "oh they (animated films) have their own place (the Animated Feature category), let them go there". The situation had evolved from a simple snubbing to an outright cinematic version of social injustice.
An argument can certainly be made that just because a particular film is the #1 critically rated movie of a certain year doesn't mean is necessarily needs to be nominated for best picture. However, we're not talking about one particular year. As you saw above, we were talking about a systematic pattern where one studio (Pixar) held the #1 rated spot 6 times from 1999-2008. SIX TIMES, and yet each and every time was shut out of consideration for Best Picture specifically because of the medium it used to tell its story.
To me, the "best pictures" are the "best pictures" regardless if they're live action, silent films, black and white, color, comedy, musical, documentary... or even animated. The best films are the best films and if you're going to call your big award "Best Picture" then you must nominate the best pictures.
This week the trend was finally broken. The movie "UP" marked Pixar's 7th film to come in as the #1 critically rated film of the year, and although it took the Academy expanding the number of Best Film nominations from 5 to 10, an animated film has once again been nominated for the top prize.
Free at last! Free at last! Thank... ok maybe that's exaggerating the importance of this all little bit, but not only do I see "UP"'s nomination as a victory for Pixar or animated films in general, but rather as a victory for the entire movie industry. Once again we are celebrating the BEST in film, and that's good for everyone, including the Oscars themselves.
Had this been any other year with only 5 nominations for "Best Picture", would "UP" still have made the cut? I like to think it may have with it also getting a nomination for "Best Original Screenplay", but we'll never know for sure. The important thing is, it got nominated.
This is not the end of the struggle for excellence in animated films to be recognized, but it is an important first step, a step in the right direction and a step long overdue.
