The Oscars Could Use a Little Sequel-itis
For at least some of you 10,000 or so Academy Awards voters, it’s not too late. You’ve still got 33 hours to have some fun with your Oscar ballot, to shake up the race and to put some awesome new stats in the record books.
And it’s easy. Follow the Producers Guild of America’s lead and nominate one or two of your fellow members. Four Blockbuster sequels are eligible for the Best Picture Prize.
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What would it be like to taste the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Follow the PGA and hand out nominations to this multibillion-dollar quartet Avatar: The Way Of Water, Top Gun: Maverick, Black Panther: Wakanda ForeverAnd Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Yes, streamers)
Overnight, the awards contest would change from a chess match between pinched sophisticates who move important pictures around the board, to an all-out slugfest between heavyweights with studio backing and loud cheering sections at every corner. It would be just like the old days when there was a cheering section at every corner. Oscars There was much to discuss. The show might be watched by people, even if they only want to see if Tom Cruise arrives via parachute or whether Chadwick Bosman is in a Hologram.
This isn’t pure fantasy. Insiders at the Academy have been whispering for months about the possibility that Oscar voters would wake up to the year’s power pictures. But it’s not a thought they would voice out loud, partly because it isn’t their place to influence the balloting, and still more, because they know that a sweep for the big sequels remains a long shot. About a quarter of the Academy’s members reside abroad, and that large international contingent seems likely to behave more like the BAFTA membership—which put only one of the blockbusters, Maverick: Top Gun, along with more difficult films such as All Quiet on the Western Front, The Banshees Inisherin And Tár. (The Critics Choice Awards was original, with Everything Everywhere All At Once Sunday.
One can still dream. To my knowledge, only ten sequels received a Best Picture nomination. This is one per 9.4 years. A four-picture stack would fill the quota for nearly a half-century. This would certainly increase the number nominated sequels to fourteen in one go.
The Godfather And Lord Of The Rings Two nominated sequels are included in cycles. This is a remarkable nominee-repeater.
The Godfather Part IILike its predecessor, he won the Oscar. The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The KingAlso, a winner was, who seemed to take the prize on behalf of the triptych.
I can only spot four sequels—Joker, Toy Story 3, Mad Max: Fury RoadAnd The Silence Of the Lambs–that received a Best Picture nomination without a predecessor having been so honored. This year Maverick: Top Gun And Glass Onion Could do it together.
Best of all, the year’s worthy sequels are all very different. A caper and a tribal epic, as well as a military adventure and 3-D space culture war.
There would be plenty to talk about. It’s not to late. One can dream.
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