What's the worst case of "category fraud"?

by Cláudio Alves

Some people don't care about "category fraud" and that's understandable. I'm a big proponent of just being happy that great artists are honored, ignoring the categorization of their work, especially when it's all so subjective. However, when it comes to the Oscar acting prizes, it does feel wrong that awards specifically created to honor character actors are now regularly dominated by stars in leading roles. Instead of opening avenues to highlight those performers with less narratively-prominent parts, the Supporting categories have become a way for leading actors that couldn't crack the leading prizes to still win gold. This game of fraudulent campaigning may have just hit its apex with this year's slew of Best "Supporting" Actor and Actress nominees.

To organize my thoughts and hopefully make the arguments clearer, here's a ranking of the "category fraud" cases of the year from least to most egregious. This is all subjective, though I'd side-eye anyone who tried to argue for the legitimacy of that top choice... 

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Showbiz History: Julia peaks, Channing rises, and Maddie swings from chandeliers

6 random things that happened on this day, March 17th, in Showbiz History. Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

1941 The National Gallery of Art opened in DC eighty years ago today. 

1991 The 44th annual BAFTA Awards honoring the films of 1990 are held. Italy's Cinema Paradiso (which we were just discussing) is a huge hit winning 5 awards and Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas emerges triumphant with the top prize (Dances with Wolves, which will beat it at the Oscars a week later, isn't up for the BAFTAs until the following year, but it loses then to the homegrown title The Commitments)...

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This Had Oscar Buzz & Chasing the Gold

by Nathaniel R

I had the pleasure of recording not one, not two, but three podcasts this week. Yes, The Film Experience's own podcast returns very soon (hopefully tomorrow). But before that's edited, please enjoy these two guest-spots I had the pleasure to do.

THIS HAD OSCAR BUZZ
Joe Reid and Chris Feil, former Team Experience members!, launched this brilliant podcast in 2018. You're probably already a fan. "This Had Oscar Buzz" discusses one failed awards hopeful per episode. They gave me a list of films to choose from for my guest spot and perusing it I knew exactly which film I had to choose. The very blonde, very actressy, very complicated, very Pfeifferiffic White Oleander (2002) called out to me. Please give it a listen! 

CHASING THE GOLD
You can also hear me discussing the brand new Oscar nominations on InSessionFilm's podcast hosted by Ryan McQuade.  Erik Anderson of Awards Watch and I were the special guests and we really get into the weeds of Oscar campaigns and this odd season. 

87 years ago today... Katharine Hepburn & the Academy began their one-sided romance.

On this day, March 16th in 1934, the 6th annual Academy Awards were held honoring the films of 1933. The event was little like it is today, not yet televised, and with only 13 categories (3 of them for short films). There were only six acting nominees. Cavalcade won Best Picture and it shared the "most nominations" stat, four in total, with the war drama A Farewell To Arms and the Capra comedy Lady for a Day...

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The New Oscar Actress Hierarchy - Glenn & Frances Rising

by Nathaniel R 

We thought it would be fun to revise the Oscar Acting Hierarchy we last shared when Julianne Moore FINALLY won an Oscar six years back. What follows is a List of Oscar's 36 All Time Favorite Actresses... (you can see the corresponding actor list here) restricted to women with 5 or more nominations (though 4 nominations will get you in the list if you've won twice). Only the acting statistics are accounted for so Emma Thompson, for example, is not ranked. If you included her screenplay win she would have made the list. If you counted non-acting nominations, you'd also see Shirley Maclaine jump a rank as she was nominated for documentary once. Now that virtually every major star is also a producer these types of extra stats will only get murkier so we're opting not to include them and focusing only on what the Academy thinks of them as actors.

🔺 = the actress has moved up the chart or strengthened her placement since the last publication of this list (in February 2015). An explanation of how the rank was determined is at the end of the post. 

OSCAR'S HOLY TRINITY 
And 33 More Royals 

 

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