Best Popular Film Oscar: Why the Academy Can Do Better Than This — IndieWire’s Movie Podcast
IndieWire Staff
The summer is usually not the time for hectic awards season updates, but this week’s announcement that the Academy was adding an Oscar for “Best Popular Film” was quite the anomaly. Movie people around the world were mortified by the decision and its implications for big and small films alike. Lost in the chaotic reaction, however, was an important factor — the Oscars are important to a lot of people, and the Academy is a valuable institution that needs to survive. Clearly, this is a desperate survival tactic, but is it the right one? And if it’s not, is too late to consider some alternate solutions?
In this week’s episode of Screen Talk, Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson debate the decision and unearth its root causes, while speculating about how the next stages of this new award might unfold. They also discuss the impact of the earlier date for the awards that will go into effect in 2020 and the decision to limit the telecast to three hours.
Listen to the full episode below.
Screen Talk is available on iTunes.
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