And (We Hope) the Academy Award Goes To…
Welcome to the latest One Moore Hollywood Podcast episode, where our hosts, Katie Marpe, Chris Moore, and Dennis De Nobile, discuss who they think the Academy Awards might go to this year. Get ready for, as Marpe says, "our predictions, expectations, hopes, and dreams!"
What’s the Academy?
The Academy's concept, described by member Moore himself, is based on the idea that people who make films are best equipped to assess other films' accomplishments and relative success. This idea sets the Academy Awards (also known as the Oscars) apart from many other film industry awards, as the nominated films are voted on by a body of members made up of industry peers some 2500-3000 strong.
Each Academy member belongs to a different branch depending on what they do in the movie business–director, actor, producer, etc.–and when voting on nominees, the members can only vote on the nominees that relate to the category, or branch, of the Academy that they represent. So, as a producer, Moore can only vote on categories such as Best Picture, Best Short Film, and Best International Feature.
As for how the voting process works, it's all based on a ranking system. Rather than vote for one nominee only, the voter will rank each film or person in the order they best like them. This rating system means that a movie can win without everyone necessarily ranking it #1; it depends on how many people rank it similarly in relation to the other movies. Because voting works this way, the Academy Awards can produce some unexpected winners (like 2023’s Everything Everywhere All At Once).
All in all, Moore appreciates how the Academy’s voting structure sets the Academy Awards apart from others. However, he does feel that the Oscars have become more corporate over the years–the event’s marketing sometimes seems to eclipse the films at the center.
Onto the Movies!
This year, an exciting and somewhat unexpected addition to the Best Picture nominations was Past Lives, an independent A24 film that Marpe has been convincing people to watch since it came out in early 2023 (Moore and De Nobile are now also fans). While she thinks Oppenheimer will probably win Best Picture, if a surprise occurs, her picks would be either Past Lives or Barbie.
Moving onto Best Director, Marpe has taken the exclusion of Greta Gerwig (Barbie) and Celine Song (Past Lives–writer and director) to heart, feeling they deserved that recognition. When musing on how some directors whose films are nominated for Best Picture are also nominated for Best Director while others aren't, Moore asks, “How does the Academy separate the director from the film?"
From Marpe’s perspective, that’s why it makes sense that more movies are nominated for Best Picture (10) than Best Director (5). Different movies have different strengths; some, like Poor Things and Barbie, have especially strong production and performances, and some, like Past Lives, have powerful scripts.
Moore says that the Academy Awards sometimes work by congratulating an extraordinary film with something, even if it’s not an award that precisely relates to that particular film's strengths. The Zone of Interest, for example, is a film that both De Nobile and Moore thought was brilliant, and they would love for it to be recognized by winning an Oscar in one of the several categories it’s nominated in.
More Snubs & Scandals
While not exactly a snub, seeming more like a full-on mistake, Moore can’t stop thinking about how Barbie was placed in the Adapted Screenplay category, along with other movies that are based on (actual) prior existing stories. “There is nothing except the outfit they used to make that script,” Moore insists. Aside from the doll itself, nearly every part of Barbie was original.
As for snubs, the biggest is that neither Greta Gerwig nor Margot Robbie got nominated for a film that smashed records left and right (and is, quite literally, about a woman’s experience existing in a patriarchal society). De Nobile adds that Barbie just hit the 1.4 billion dollar mark worldwide, while Oppenheimer sits at a (still impressive, but less so) 957 million. Our hosts conclude that the Academy has drastically misunderstood Barbie. “Barbie not getting respect is something that I’m sad about because I think they just wrote it off,” Moore says.
“Everything good about that movie came from the director,” Marpe says, “which is why I would love it if Barbie won Best Picture.”
Listen to the entire episode here: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or iHeartRadio.
