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Oscars: How About Best Picture and Most Artistic Picture?

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Oscars: How About Best Picture and Most Artistic Picture?

POSTED: Friday, February 5, 2010, 4:57 PM

Carrie Rickey, Film Critic

Janet Gaynor and George O'Brien in F.W. Murnau's "Sunrise"

Here's an idea that would fulfill Oscar's mission to boost its sagging television ratings and honor cinematic art: Separate categories for Best Picture and Most Artistic Picture.

Interestingly, those two separate categories were in force at the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929 (honoring the films of 1927 and 1928) where Wings, William Wellman's soaring aviation action flick, was named outstanding picture and Sunrise, F. W. Murnau's atmospheric portrait of an apparently doomed couple who reconcile, was named most unique and artistic.

Good idea, or what? And how would Oscar history be re-written if these two categories had been observed? My guess is that in 1982, E.T. would have been named best picture and Gandhi most artistic.

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Comments (9)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:51 PM, 02/05/2010

Best musical? Best comedy? Best dramatic? Isn't it all art?

— ellen ginsburg

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:54 PM, 02/05/2010

Carrie, for years, the Academy has been comparing apples to oranges - as have other misguided "awards" shows. Your idea is a distinct improvement but I don't see anyway around this so long as artists continues to keep score and pit one against the other.

— Pash

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 6:20 PM, 02/05/2010

The Golden Globes have the right idea - one for comedies/musicals and one for drama.

— KateC

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 6:33 PM, 02/05/2010

I like the idea, Carrie, but how about taking it a step further: each year, determine whether there are sufficient numbers of films in genuine contention for each category, as both Ellen & Pash suggest above, e.g., musical, comedy, drama, action, etc., and nominate for those categories accordingly. That is, if there are only two good musicals, no such category that year, but they can be nominated as comedy or drama accordingly...(Films could be nominated in only one category.) That way, you don't have 20 action pix competing with 2 "serious" bio-epics spoken in British accents (always the winners, regardless of content). This would, of course, require some actual thought and hard work on the part of the academy members, but it would give due recognition to those films that are inevitably passed over because they are not deemed high-minded enough. We were born too late--bring back the days when Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (a screwball comedy) could sweep the top five awards!

— Nancy KC

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 6:50 PM, 02/05/2010

The only problem would be the determination. Films might be qualified for both (a parallel might be the Grammys which have Record of the Year and Song of the Year, where song goes to the songwriter). This year, A Serious Man is up for best picture, but that could easily qualify for "artistic." Besides, given the choices the Academy has made over the years, how could you trust them to determine what was "artistic." The doubling of the category is a silly idea. It was OK back in the 1930s and 1940s when Hollywood had a much greater output of films but with fewer films being released, it almost becomes like my ninth grade talent show where there were no winners because someone cried when she lost the year before so the prize was getting in in the first place.

— edwardcopeland

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:11 PM, 02/05/2010

Ellen's comment -- "isn't it all art?" -- is obviously on point. The only benefit I can see in reinstituting the two category system is that it would provide more opportunities for enjoyable argument for those who cared to indulge. I don't think there was much wrong with the previous system, meaning 5 nominations for Best Picture, selecting one of them, and then over and out. I mean, like, who cares that much?

— ccjroberts

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:23 PM, 02/05/2010

I must add that the image from Sunrise you used to illustrate this piece is wonderful. I wish I could enlarge it and use it as a screen-saver.

— ccjroberts

Comment removed.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:29 PM, 02/06/2010

As for the Globes, they can't even get their categories right. Crazy Heart was a film full of original music and lots of singing, buy was placed in drama. You could almost call Up in the Air and Inglorious Basterds comedies and why was Sherlock Holmes considered a comedy?

— edwardcopeland