Oscar here! Press and Public nipping at his heels

He’s back…Oscar, with all his hopes, aspirations and disappointments.  What started as a relatively small contest within Hollywood, among those in the Industry has escalated into something very big and the criticism being levelled at the beleagured voters, that they are prejudiced against the minorities, is wrong.   I am disappointed by the Press and Public reaction.  I know the Academy is colour blind and the Motion Picture Industry is one of the most open minded and liberal businesses in the World. I am sorry that  David Oyelowo was not nominated for his wonderful performance as Martin Luther King,  however there was an extraordinary array of really strong performances this year.  And SELMA has deservedly received a Best Picture nomination.   However there was not the embarrassment of riches in Black film making as we had last year.   I do not believe that what is essentially a quality driven competition within a specific industry, voted by its professional members, need not be representative of what society and the Press thinks it should be.   The Oscars has been enlarged in our collective imagination into something it was not designed to be and people are criticizing the nominations for the wrong reasons.

Personally I think FURY is one the best anti war films ever made, with two of the best performances, this year and it has not received a single nomination.   So before we get on our high horses about prejudice and discrimination, everyone has different opinions!

I found FOXCATCHER one of the most disturbing and unhappy films of the year.   I am not keen watching rich sociopaths …John Dupont…busy destroying other people’s lives, especially when it’s a true story.   I’d rather leave them where they deserve to be, forgotten.   Clever, interesting film, but the excellent performance by Channing Tatum, was overlooked for a nomination, which is disappointing.  Frankly I would have been happy never to have seen the movie, I found it so upsetting.  So there you go, we cannot please everyone…