When Awards Hurt The Films

At the end of the year, critics and enthusiasts champion their batch of favorite films in the hope of building momentum for a run at some trophies, and ultimately, promoting larger awareness among the movie-going public. Recognition by groups like AMPAS or the Hollywood Foreign Press doesn’t just provide new taglines for television promos; in some cases, those films are re-released after a strong showing.

It makes sense for critics groups to take these events seriously. Any awards that a small film like Short Term 12 earn are a massive promotional tool that can draw more eyes to the picture. But groupthink often leads to organizations picking more high-profile films, and often the same film will slowly turn into a runaway train collecting dozens of wins among critics groups.

This year, the runaway train is Fox Searchlight’s 12 Years A Slave. The film has dominated the awards season this far, so if one group selects something else, then it must be due to the strength of that film. Case in point: When the Utah Film Critics Association declared Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity their favorite film of 2013, one would just assume they really liked that movie. However, Awards Daily blogger Ryan Adams nixed that proposition altogether, noting in his write-up about the UFCA’s selections, “Fun fact: Utah’s population is 2% black.” Basically, he implies Gravity‘s win was due to racism.

There are legitimate criticisms to be made against each film, but to say that racism is the main reason Gravity would be preferred is just petty and irresponsible. The UFCA rewarded 12 Years A Slave with a win for Best Actor (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and the film finished runner-up in categories like Best Film, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor. Those are hardly the type of picks made by people who disliked the film due to its black characters.

“Elitism” is the pejorative term lobbed around film criticism the most, and this kind of dismissive behavior is exactly why people hate the Oscar build-up. Unfortunately, Adams’ snide dismissal is often the rule, not the exception. Awards Daily’s other writer, Sasha Stone, took offense to the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s selection of Jared Leto and James Franco as Best Supporting Actor. It wasn’t enough that she disagreed with their collective choice; she insisted it was a stunt and that they didn’t actually believe Franco’s performance as Alien in Spring Breakers was worthy of acclaim.

Sites like Awards Daily place more importance on these small accolades than they’re worth and then tear down those who don’t go along with the predetermined winners they’ve had in mind since August. Tempers flare, snide comments are blown up into feuds, and pigeonholing becomes the norm. The end of the year is no longer centered around celebrating what was released in cinemas; rather, it has become a chance to predict what will win big at the Academy Awards. The UFCA and LAFCA have no responsibility to predict what will win in March. Their choices are theirs and theirs alone.

A lot gets lost in the middle of awards season. Awards bloggers and other fans of the hype machine have lost sight of what film critic associations are supposed to be doing by giving away awards: shedding light on some of the best films of a particular year. Disagreements are a natural byproduct of passionate takes on films, but nasty drive-by comments like these are doing nothing but harming cinema in the long run. Let’s get back to celebrating the movies.