This Sunday night is Oscar night, where the question of which film is the best picture of the year will finally be decided and Jon Stewart will go down in history as the best Academy Awards host of all time. It's also the night that will determine which films, actors and directors will be most marketable in the film industry.
"The Oscars are very much a gigantic marketing tool, with nominations historically generating up to $11 million per film above their usual gross," said Jeffrey Middents, a film studies professor at AU. "This is particularly important for films that are perhaps slightly off the mainstream radar and is especially important to gain interest in such films in foreign markets, which are increasingly influential these days."
While the show will undoubtedly be entertaining to watch and financially helpful for otherwise lesser-known films, the Academy Awards generally have very little impact on film studies itself, Middents said.
"Although conventional wisdom says that we will 'remember' the Best Pictures and performances, that is not always the case," he said "Two of what are generally considered Hitchcock's greatest movies, 'Rear Window' and 'Vertigo,' were not even nominated for Best Picture."
The awards also don't always point out every good movie of the year, though they highlight some of the better movies, Middents said. Sometimes worthy films are disqualified or simply not nominated.
"Comedies are constantly ignored, which is a shame because comedy is so much harder to write for and act than many people believe," Middents said, who cited "The 40 Year-old Virgin" as a 2005 film worthy of an Oscar nomination.
Although the Academy Awards ignores certain genres and can be perceived as a marketing tool for smaller movies, the film studies class that Middents teaches this semester focuses on movie stardom, for which the Academy Awards can define a star's caliber in Hollywood. It can help them avoid being typecast, the professor said.
"Charlize Theron, who was really seen only as a pretty face worthy to be seen on another actor's arm, suddenly became an actor with a capital 'A' with the nomination and then win for Oscar," Middents said, referring to Theron's 2004 Best Actress Oscar win for her portrayal of a serial killer in "Monster."
The awards are also considered to be important because of the people who choose which movies to nominate and award Oscars to, Middents said.
"In theory, the Academy knows the movie business inside and out and know how and what to award. People in the industry treat this as the big event because the [awards] are decided by their peers."
Don't miss the Oscars this Sunday at 8 p.m. on ABC, and check out this issue's predictions by Professor Middents and some in-the-know Scene staffers on who will take home a little gold man this year.
