OFCS Falls For Category Fraud
Monday, December 7, 2015 at 3:35PM The Online Film Critics Society have released their annual nominations. They're the oldest of the many critics group which sprung up with "online" in the title back in the days when there was more of a clear line between print and web. This year unfortunately they've signed up for Category Fraud endorsing both Alicia Vikander and Rooney Mara's "supporting" campaigns so it's difficult to take them seriously. If we can't defeat the spreading cancer of category fraud this year with so much attention paid to how ridiculous it is to call protagonists in their own films "supporting" -- even among groups who aren't generally eager to "predict" Oscars with their nominations (and OFCS has been blessedly free of that curse in the past) -- than perhaps the war will never be won. It's all so very discouraging because it makes the honors feel cheap and gamed as opposed to fairly won.
the war on drugs will never be won. perhaps the war on category fraud is just as eternal
As such it's difficult to find joy in happy results like Cynthia Nixon nominated for James White (despite a very low profile and only $52,000 in ticket sales to date) and Sicario, which we'd feared would be forgotten coming on strong. In fact Denis Villeneuve's drug war thriller led the nominations alongside Carol. The complete OFCS nominations are at their site if you're interested.
UPDATE: I have heard from a few members of the OFCS expressing their displeasure with the results and/or this post. Like the BFCA (of which I am a member) there were internal discussions about this before they voted. (Full disclosure: at least two of our own contributors are members of the OFCS). There are people within the organization who are against category fraud but voting within all awards bodies is a matter of math and majority rules. I don't really expect BFCA to self-correct on this next week when the nominations come out but it's good that there's at least been a discussion for once. Internally the BFCA has suggested to members that Rooney Mara should be considered a lead, despite what the campaign says, but they are still free to vote as they will. We'll see.
OFCS, Sicario, film critics 
