You mentioned this but I would like to stress it more: I don't think they were likely to award Best Picture to the first half of Dune. As with LOTR, if they decide to honor it, they'll honor after the second half finishes up the story of the original novel. (I guess there's some thought they may make installments based on some of the later novels, so I guess that could push any awards farther out.)
The observation that Oscar shies away from rewarding epics doesn't seem right to me, on the contrary "Epic" seems to be one of the categories in the standard rotation of what the academy like to honor. Here's one from each decade except the 2010s, could list a half dozen more: Cimarron, Gone with the Wind, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Patton, the Last Emperor, Titanic, Gladiator, LOTR
Jeet's more qualified point that Oscar hasn't often honored scifi/fantasy epics, in particular, seems right, so who knows, maybe there is a bias there. And the particular set of movies nominated next year will matter more than general trends like "the Acadamy does like its epics"; something else could emerge as the universally beloved favorite next year. I dunno, I don't claim any Oscars expertise, but I came out of Dune thinking it has a shot, but only after they finish the story.
On Apocalypse Now not winning, I've always figured that they weren't going to award a gonzo Vietnam war epic by a New Hollywood director, one year after the Deer Hunter.
Anyway, I watched CODA the night after it won the award. Pretty good movie, I could imagine actually rewatching it someday, more than I could say for the majority of the winners from the last few decades. Doug's point that it's hard to understand how you meaningfully compare the likes of CODA to the likes of Dune is a good one, but it's not exactly a new phenomenon is it? As Doug points out, same thing with Apocalypse Now and Kramer vs. Kramer. Look at Ben-Hur's competition. Not saying you don't know this, just that it kind of shows how absurd the whole business of naming a "best picture" is. I mean, they have to call the award something, and obviously they're not going to call it "picture we felt like honoring this year, for fundamentally arbitrary reasons", but really that's what it is.
Very good discussion, thanks for that.
You mentioned this but I would like to stress it more: I don't think they were likely to award Best Picture to the first half of Dune. As with LOTR, if they decide to honor it, they'll honor after the second half finishes up the story of the original novel. (I guess there's some thought they may make installments based on some of the later novels, so I guess that could push any awards farther out.)
The observation that Oscar shies away from rewarding epics doesn't seem right to me, on the contrary "Epic" seems to be one of the categories in the standard rotation of what the academy like to honor. Here's one from each decade except the 2010s, could list a half dozen more: Cimarron, Gone with the Wind, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Patton, the Last Emperor, Titanic, Gladiator, LOTR
Jeet's more qualified point that Oscar hasn't often honored scifi/fantasy epics, in particular, seems right, so who knows, maybe there is a bias there. And the particular set of movies nominated next year will matter more than general trends like "the Acadamy does like its epics"; something else could emerge as the universally beloved favorite next year. I dunno, I don't claim any Oscars expertise, but I came out of Dune thinking it has a shot, but only after they finish the story.
On Apocalypse Now not winning, I've always figured that they weren't going to award a gonzo Vietnam war epic by a New Hollywood director, one year after the Deer Hunter.
Anyway, I watched CODA the night after it won the award. Pretty good movie, I could imagine actually rewatching it someday, more than I could say for the majority of the winners from the last few decades. Doug's point that it's hard to understand how you meaningfully compare the likes of CODA to the likes of Dune is a good one, but it's not exactly a new phenomenon is it? As Doug points out, same thing with Apocalypse Now and Kramer vs. Kramer. Look at Ben-Hur's competition. Not saying you don't know this, just that it kind of shows how absurd the whole business of naming a "best picture" is. I mean, they have to call the award something, and obviously they're not going to call it "picture we felt like honoring this year, for fundamentally arbitrary reasons", but really that's what it is.