Screen | Five best picture nominees is enough

There are few spectacles sadder than watching people fight the wrong battles, particularly when those battles are losing ones.

For several years now, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been trying everything it can think of to pump up the Oscar ceremony's television ratings. Those numbers have been steadily declining, with the drop this year over last particularly steep.

As a result, viewers have seen a steady parade of one-and-done hosts, an emphasis on comedic segments one year, musical selections the next, and other programming innovations that have succeeded at nothing so much as exuding previously unimagined levels of awkwardness.

Nothing has really worked, but I like the latest proposal now being whispered about in film circles, if only because it makes sense and appears to show an acknowledgment on the part of the AMPAS leadership that the Oscars aren't about TV ratings, but, quite simply, the movies being honored.

If reports are to be believed, later this month the Academy leadership will vote on whether to scrap a change instituted six years ago, when the number of Best Picture nominees was expanded from five to as many as 10. Do it, I say, and stop showering nominations on movies that don't deserve them.

There has long been a belief that if there were even just six Best Picture nominees in 2009 "The Dark Knight" would've made the cut. We'll never know, nor should we assume that it would've had a fighting chance at winning the award if it were nominated, or that legions of superhero fans would've tuned in to the Oscars to watch. But it was that thinking that led to the expansion.

Since then, the 6,000 members of the Academy have largely filled out the ranks of Best Picture nominees with more of the same limited-release, art-house titles that always get the most love during awards season, movies that few people ever see.

This year, one notable exception to that rule — the blockbuster "American Sniper" — snatched a Best Pic nod that it wouldn't have received were there just five nominees, only to come away with one Oscar, for Best Sound Editing.

Some Hollywood observers have suggested the Academy broaden the Best Picture pool even more, to rope in popular hits such as, say, "Guardians of the Galaxy." No, no, a thousand times no!

This is where my elitism starts to show, but the Academy Awards are dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures. Superhero movies remain exceedingly popular, and as long as that trend continues the studios will continue making them, but they have advanced cinema in only one respect.

When it comes to visual effects, the superhero genre is cutting edge. That's where those titles show up on Oscar night, and where they belong. Superhero movies offer screenplays that are as formulaic as they come, with few opportunities for groundbreaking acting unless a performer happens to capture a villain particularly well, as Heath Ledger did as the Joker in, again, "The Dark Knight." Academy voters have clearly recognized this.

By going back to five Best Picture nominees, the Academy would likely be throwing in the towel when it comes to TV ratings, but it would send a positive message about its commitment to the stated mission of the Oscars. Well, let's go!

Each and every year, the television audience for the Tony Awards, honoring excellence on Broadway, is a fraction of the Oscar's take, but no one vents existential angst over those numbers. That's because theater lovers express their love by going to the theater, just as movie lovers go to the movies.

Each year I grow increasingly frustrated by those who watch the Oscars every year only to pile on about the show's many failings. I guess they expect to be entertained. Well, it's about the movies, and if these same critics went to the trouble to actually watch all, or even some, of the nominated films I'd give more credence to their criticism.

This is more than just a tug of war between dumbing down to reach a wider audience and inviting that crowd to smarten up. The reality is some years feature a preponderance of quality movies (2013), while in other years the pickings are slim (2014). Holding the Best Picture category to five nominees would even out that disparity, as it always did before.

As a dedicated viewer of all the Best Pic nominees, I likely could've skipped "American Sniper," "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and "Whiplash" this year under the old system. I would've been OK with that.

thill3@nncogannett.com

419-563-9225

Twitter: @ToddHillMNJ