Last year, the Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added 600 new members representing varied backgrounds and artistic disciplines. This was done in response to criticism of the Academy being comprised of mostly white males over the age of 60.
While this is a promising step by the Academy to further establish their award's prestige, there is one factor that will likely be overlooked: audience preference.
The only reason the film studios thrive is due to their ability to draw in audiences. This year, the top 100 grossing domestic films brought in over $11 billion to major and independent companies.
Granted, looking at box office receipts to select the films, and assuming general audiences universally believe those films deserve Oscars. I remember having an hour long discussion about whether "Transformers 4" should win every award since it made over $1 billion on its own. I lost the respect of a friend that day, but I earned self worth by defending the art of filmmaking.
That is why the Academy has assembled 6,600 members: there need to be a regulated system to recognize the appropriate artists who genuinely deserve their award, and keep high grossing, low quality filmmakers like Micheal Bay in check.
However, the Academy doesn't always get things right. For example, in 2008, the top snubbed Best Picture films were arguably Pixar's "Wall-E" and "The Dark Knight". Each film won various awards in their own right, but despite being beautiful, popular films, the Academy decided to snub these films for more traditional movies like "The Reader". Without Googling, can you honestly tell me who was in "The Reader"?
After that controversial year, the Academy opted to expand the field of Best Picture nods from five to ten. While this has allowed genre films like "Mad Max: Fury Road", "Avatar", and "Toy Story 3" to nominated, there's one genre that has been ignored by the academy in their most distinguished category: comic book films.
Comic book movies have a reputation of being nothing more than high budget, tentpole films who have the sole purpose of getting the most butts in movie theater seats. They serve as a means to ensure studios have money to fund artful, small budget films that will allow filmmakers to contend for awards.
"Captain America: Civil War" is not only the highest grossing film of 2016, but the Marvel movie has earned a myriad of positive, critical scores on major platforms like IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes and CinemaScope. Yet the only legitimate, non-popular voted award it has a chance of winning at this moment is the Screen Actor Guild Award for its stunt work.
While "Civil War" will likely be snubbed, there is another critically-beloved, and high-grossing comic book film that may have a chance: "Deadpool".
The incomparable "Deadpool" has been nominated for two major awards that recognize the best films. First is the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture- Comedy/Musical, but lost to "La La Land".
The second, and more impressive, award is the Producers Guild of America's Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Picture. Named after Darryl F. Zanuck, the PGA's highest annual award has been a reliable source of which films the Academy nominates for their Best Picture Award. Last year, the PGA had seven of the eight Best Picture nominees in their pool, selecting "The Big Short", a comedy, to receive the award.
Personally, I believe the developmental story behind "Deadpool" would contend for a documentary Oscar. After a small role in the critically and commercially poor "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", Ryan Reynolds took it upon himself to redeem Wade Wilson, the character who would become Deadpool. Instead of allowing the charismatic Reynolds truly embody the character's quippy, self-aware, and raunchy nature, Fox opted to make Deadpool into a dull, silent assassin with a grab bag full of powers.
Ryan Reynolds fought for years to give Deadpool an appropriate movie portrayal, but due to the graphic nature of the character, and general PG-13 culture of comic book movies, it was a hard sell for anybody. Then test footage leaked. By accident. And not by Ryan Reynolds. At all.Once approved, with a smaller budget than most modern comic book movies, "Deadpool" was released last Valentine's Day weekend, and became 2016's ninth highest grossing film,
Though genre-specific films are hard to get through, the Academy has recognized various genre films in the past. Last year, "Mad Max: Fury Road", an action movie with more explosions than dialogue, won 6 awards, and found itself nominated in the Best Picture and Best Director categories. In 2003, Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King", a fantasy film, won a record-tying 11 Oscars. Before the "Lord of the Rings" film series, fantasy movies were seen as more children-geared, but the genre has been seen in a different light since Peter Jackson's masterpiece swept the awards.
"Deadpool" is the first legitimate contender the comic book genre has had to reach the elusive Best Picture nod. Though the new Academy members may be a sign of advancement in diversity, it may be too early to see a worthy comic book film in their most revered category. Though the Academy hasn't used all ten eligible slots since 2010.
Perhaps this is the year they take a chance on comic book films.
