The politics of Oscar

Mark Zuckerberg is an asshole. Or is he?

Natalie Portman is pregnant. Or is she?

Banksy’s documentary is real and so is his subject Thierry Guetta. Or are they?

The answers to those questions are: probably not, yes and who cares?

Trivial as those questions may be, they will play a very important role in the ongoing Oscar race. As is always the case but rarely widely known is that who will win at the Academy Awards is very much dictated by real world politics, gossip and controversy.  
It’s the reason critics are often wrong in predicting the outcome because quality is typically not the only factor in deciding a winner. But whereas other awards shows have lost credibility because of their political lean, the Oscars are the only award left that seems to reflect the bigger picture in the surrounding world. 

I refer back to my original examples. Back when “The Social Network” was released, Mark Zuckerberg donated a large sum of money to charity. Are the two events necessarily related? No, but it was made to appear that way. Now as ballots are distributed to Academy voters for nominations, Facebook is in the news again, this time for receiving a $450 million investment from Goldman Sachs. 

If and when Facebook becomes publicly traded, it will speak to the company’s significance on our society. David Fincher’s movie conveniently does the same thing, so how do you think Columbia exec Scott Rudin is going to pitch that “The Social Network” is the film to vote for?

Rumors are also abounding that Natalie Portman’s pregnancy and engagement to her choreographer on “Black Swan” was announced in a timely enough fashion to earn a sympathy vote for Best Actress. It’s a bit of a stretch to make that presumption, but the whole idea is to create an image here. You don’t often become America’s sweetheart by just being cute, especially when the movie she’s in doesn’t scream adorable. 

And Banksy and “Exit Through the Gift Shop”? Well, this intrigues me on a number of levels, none of them particularly relevant to the quality of the documentary. Even though there is no shred of actual proof, there are still rumors that the film is an elaborate prank played on us by the most notorious and reclusive artist of the decade. What’s more, if Banksy’s film wins, is it possible he could show up to claim his award?

These are the narratives that are being spread around because when it becomes impossible to choose between quality, voters look at the message a win would send. 

“Exit Through the Gift Shop” speaks to the nature of art and the counter culture that supports it. Playing up the idea that voting for the film suggests an embracement of the counterculture that is street art, even if Banksy has no chance of coming out of hiding, is all the more appealing. 

Think back to when “The Hurt Locker” was gunning for Best Picture. The story against it was not that it made no money or that Kathryn Bigelow has no other real masterpiece to her name. Instead it was that Mark Boal may have plagiarized the screenplay or that the film didn’t accurately depict the life of a soldier. 

In the end, the film’s victory sent a message that the Iraq War is an unpopular one, and the war does something to the soldiers we send there. It’s also a great film. And so is “The Social Network” or “Black Swan” or “Exit Through the Gift Shop.”

But no one cares about that.