The Nuts and Bolts of Nominations
By David Josselyn
On Tuesday, 1/24/2017, the nominations for the Academy Awards were announced. I bet you were thinking, as you probably do every year, “Why wasn’t (fill in the blank) nominated?” It is a matter of frustration for the consumers of Hollywood goods when the Hollywood elite acknowledge the movies, performances, and work that don’t reflect the box office receipts. You may think, for instance, that “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice” is a shoe-in for Best Picture because of the depth of storytelling into the human psyche and the consequences of power, but the film didn’t get one nomination in any category. The films nominated for the Academy Awards rarely reflect box office receipts for the year. If that were the case, then the top nominations would be “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” “Finding Dory,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “The Secret Life of Pets,” “The Jungle Book (2016),” and “Deadpool.” You would have to scroll down to the 24th highest grossing film of 2016 to find the first Academy nominated picture, “La La Land.” Obviously, the nominated films have nothing to do with how much the public spent on the film. To alleviate frustration, it helps to know a little about the nomination process and why you see certain titles and names while others are ignored.
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