A look at the Academy's changed changes....

Yesterday the Academy decided not to add the Popular Film category in the middle of an Oscar season. That doesn't mean that it is completely going away. They are continuing the plan of removing 6-8 categories from the live telecast as well as moving up the date in 2020.  Three points:

Popular Film

My Best Films Rewatch actually led me to a better understanding of what this category could have been. "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion," "Drop Dead Gorgeous," "Billy Elliot," just to name a few, are films that are not going to make my Top 10 Films of All Time" list but they would very possibly land on a "Favorite Films of All Time." A slight rewording of the name and an explanation up front could truly make this work.

After watching "Crazy Rich Asians" I could totally see myself wanting it to not only be nominated, but win! If you look at "CRA" a little too closely, you will certainly see it is not one of the BEST films of the year. But it is popular, fun and amazing!

Many people are looking at this category through the lens of "Black Panther," big budgets, even race. I for one had issues with "Black Panther" and highly doubt it will make my top 10. But my Top 10 is not the Academy's Best Picture nominees. For one thing, the preferential, weighted ballot truly waters down the list. I could totally be on board with "Black Panther" being the frontrunner for Favorite Film of the Year. But the Oscar harpies...that subset of pundit that thrives off of controversy to drive their readership would never let it be about the quality of the film. It would be about race.

The Academy is doing all the wrong things to attract more viewers. Well, not all the wrong thing....

Less categories

This actually might appease many of the average viewing audience. The people who buy the tickets.

BUT...
The 50% of our country who voted for Donald Trump. They hate us anyway. At a family function last weekend a family member referred to all Hollywood actors (other than The Rock) as jerks. This is the reality of our sad world and presenting less categories at the Oscars will NEVER EVER BRING THESE PEOPLE BACK TO THE OSCARS. Not unless we start awarding movies like "Atlas Shrugged."

AND...
It truly breaks my heart. I have watched the Oscars for 30 years, missing only 2 ceremonies. Taking away the magical moment between reading the nominees and announcing the winner...and moving it to Twitter, where I have to watch a select few of my colleagues who are lucky enough (and often bitter AF) to be in the audience tell me who wins...it just sucks. That's really all I can say about it.

Often, movies I love win these below the line categories. My favorite film a couple of years ago was "Mad Max." Seeing it sweep the early part of the telecast was so exciting. And...the most popular films generally win/are nominated for those awards!!

Moving up the date

This is the one that they are truly ignorant about. Yes...Oscar season is tiring for the people who cover it. For the PR folks who have to keep their films in the spotlight. For the Academy board of governors. But not for this group of people they want to watch the show. They don't give a shit about The Director's Guild of America awards? SORRY, they don't. By moving the date ahead they are preventing the general public from having an opportunity to become invested. It's hard enough for me to watch all the movies and I am kind of in the middle when it comes to availability. I am allowed access to screeners...to some extent, but many, many movies don't make it to Oxford, MS until the last weeks before the show...sometimes after.