Oscar bait is a term used in the film community for movies that appear for the purpose of earning nominations for Academy Awards or “Oscars”, as they are known known. ^[1] They are usually released just in advance of Oscar season , late in the calendar year, so as to meet the minimum requirements for the admissibilité awards and be fresh in the minds of Oscar voters. The prestige or acclaim of the studio may be awarded to the film or to the film box. some movies may be depending on it to turn a profit. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5]}

Movies seen as Oscar has often distinct characteristics. Lavishly produced epic length period dramas , often set against tragic historical events such as the Holocaust , are frequently seen and often contended for the technical Oscars such as cinematography , makeup and hairstyling , costume design gold production design . ^[6] Alternatively, if set in the present, the plot may center on a physical or mental disability . The cast may also include actors with previous awards or nominations, which may also be shared by the director or writer.

Since the end of the year, it has been used in discussions of movies as at least 1948, dates to 1978. That year, Michael Cimino ‘s The Deer Hunter Was shown only to limited audiences heavy with Oscar voters and critics for just long enough to be eligible, and Then Went into wide release partner after the appointments Were annoncé. ^[7] It’s definitely won that year’s Best Oscar Picture . In later years and other studios, the filmmakers and viewers.^[8]

Movies termed “Oscar bait” are not always successful. That many films APPEAR to be made with the overt intent of gaming the system by pandering to the Perceived Biases of Academy voters-have INSTEAD received no nominations at all. Audiences have in turn avoided those movies in favor of those who did receive nominations. In a 2014 study of 3,000 films released since 1985, two UCLA professors identified the 1990 film As See the Paradiseas the most deliberately targeted for the Oscars. It does not receive any nominations and does not receive any nominations and failed at the box office. ^[9]

History

From the first Oscars, there have been instances of films whose initials In 1933, MGM released the Greta Garbo classic Queen Christina in New York and Los Angeles the week after Christmas , expanding it to more cities. Six years later, it was the same with Gone with the Wind , which went to win the Best Picture Oscar. ^[10]

“Oscar bait” was used in a critical 1948 review of John Ford’s ” Fort Apache” in the New Republic, which ends with the “Postcards are supposed to be sent through the mail”, flashed self-consciously on the screen, they look like Oscar bait. ” ^[11] [12] The New York Times used it in a 1955 article about the then-upcoming The Harder They Fall , Humphrey Bogart’s final film. ^[13] A 1968 ad for The Lion in Winter quoted from a review in Cosmopolitan praising the performances of Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn as “Oscar bait outings.^[14]

These all referred to films or performances that, while they might attract the attention of Academy Voters, have not been made in mind. But also in 1948, the Supreme Court of the United States ‘ decision in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. , theatrical studios, changed the film industry profoundly. With their pictures, they have made the right theatrical run, and the television market has become profitable. Thus their release patterns began following the calendar even more than they already had. ^[10]

The first film to deliberately seek Oscar nominations as a marketing strategy was The Deer Hunter in 1978. After a disastrous test screening of the lengthy Vietnam War epic in Detroit, Universal turned to another producer, Allan Carr , with both Broadway and Hollywood experience, for advice on how to successfully market a depressing film. ^[7]

He made it so, with such a grim subject and brutal depictions of war and torture, that he would have been nominated for the Academy Awards. Carr, ounce the producers had a consultant, arranged for a two-week screenings at a single theater in New York and Los Angeles before the year ended, the minimum requirements for Oscar eligibility at that time. The audiences were limited to critics and Academy members. After That pulled the movie from Universal distribution ^[8] save for Some showings on the Z Channel, a cable network That shop catered to movie enthusiasts with showings of rare arty movies and exclusive director’s cuts of more popular ones. “We will cultivate the right audience,” Carr promised. “is an Oscar winner! ” ^[7]

When the Oscar nominations were announced, the Deer Hunter received nine. It is a long time ago that it was soon drawn into wide publicity and drawing attention to the nominations. Ultimate it won five Best Picture . “It’s a common pattern today,” said Thom Mount , then president of Universal, later years. “But it was unheard of in 1978. Now everybody does it.” ^[7] Critic Ty Burr agrees. “The practice is the equivalent of a triumphant slam dunk in the final seconds, and it often wins the game,” he wrote in a 2013 New York Times Magazine article. ^[10]

During the 1980s, as Hollywood Moved away from director-driven movies like The Deer Hunter , focusing is repeating the success of summer blockbusters like Jaws and Star Wars (both of qui HAD aussi beens Nominated for Best Picture), independent filmmakers refined Carr’s methods of exploiting the Oscars. Merchant Ivory ‘s lavish costume dramas , often based on novels by Henry James or EM Forster , were widely emulated and set the standard for one type of Oscar – bait production. Their 1985 adaptation of Forster’s Room with a Viewwon two of the seven Oscars it was nominated for. ^[10]

By 1991 the modern movie-release calendar, in which the studios released the movies they had the highest. Independent-film mogul Harvey Weinstein sought prestige for his productions through Oscars; it culminated in a 1998 Best Picture for Shakespeare in Love , another costume drama. ^[10] Similar strategies to The Deer Hunter brought Weinstein’s other Best Picture in 2010 for The King’s Speech , starring Colin Firth , who got his start in Merchant Ivory’s 1980s films. ^[5] Use of the term “Oscar bait” in the media began to increase in the mid-1990s to a 2004 peak, after which it has remained stable.^[15]

Statistical analyzes

A study by Gabriel Rossman and Oliver Schilke, two sociologists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), reviewed data from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), such as genres and plot keywords, for 3,000 movies released between 1985 and 2009 to see what elements were likeliest to draw Oscar nominations. The researchers found that war movies, historical epics, and biographies earned the most. Plot elements of political intrigue, disabilities, war crimes and business were also very common element of nominated films. A release during Oscar season , or by an independent division of a major studio were also strong indicators. ^[16] [17]The study found that some words had a strongly negative correlation with Oscar nominations, such as ” zombie “, ” breast implant ” and “black independent film”. ^[9]

According to the study, the movie that scored the most blatant Oscar bait among the films surveyed was Alan Parker ‘s 1990 Come See the Paradise , released by 20th Century Fox . ^[9] Oscar nominations of Parker, his setting in Hollywood (star Dennis Quaid plays a projectionist ) and its depiction of a tragic historical event (his Japanese American wife and children are interned ) against the background of war and racism. It was only released in a few cities during the last week of that year to make it eligible for the awards. However, it was not nominated for any. ^[9]

Second and third were The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King , the 2003 Best Picture winner, and The People Vs. Larry Flynt , released in 1996. At the low end, as the movie, which was awarded the Oscar, was the 2006 remake of When a Stranger Calls , which was not nominated for any Oscars. It was followed by 2009’s Hotel for Dogs and Barbershop 2: Back in Business , from 2004. ^[9]

Rossman and Schilke used their data to develop an algorithm that could nominated Oscar nominations. They did not take a sophisticated statistical analysis, they noted- Oscar- nominated Entertainment Weekly . Using data on how much the film had cost to make, they treated the system of nominating a Tullock lottery to determine the rate of return on their investments. They found that while Oscar-nominated movies do indeed get at least a small bonus, they are directly related to nominations, movies with what they called “Oscar Appeal” took a loss when they did not get any nominations.^[17]

“We’ve found that audiences do not like the kinds of aesthetics that are characteristic of Oscar-worthy movies,” Rossman said. “The movies tend to be serious and depressing, and audiences do not like that, so making Oscar-y movies is a riskier strategy than the average moviegoer might appreciate.” As for the payoff a movie gets when it receives nominations, “[a] udiences do not like the kind of movies that get Oscars, but they do like the Oscars,” he said. It was the economic bonus from getting nominations or winning that made the losses of not doing so worth it. ^[17]

A Year Earlier, Ira Kalb, a professor of marketing at the University of Southern California ‘s Marshall School of Business , HAD done research into how big the payoff Could Be Oscar for a movie victorious. “When used in marketing campaigns, this validation stamp increases the desire for moviegoers to see the movies and the talent being honored,” he wrote in a Business Insider article. “It also keeps the movies in the box, and it increases DVD downloads, streaming, download, and cable TV revenues.” ^[5]

He used the 2010 Best Picture winner, The King’s Speech , as his primary example. Before being nominated, it was expected to make about $ 30 million in worldwide box office receipts. After it received 12 nominations that year, the most of any movie in contention, that estimate was revised upward to $ 200 million. “[A] n Academy Award nomination can boost sales by one-third and cause a jump in the DVDs,” wrote Kalb. Winning increases the reward even further. As a result of its win, The King’s Speech was expected to bring back almost half a billion dollars. ^[5] (As of 2014 , it has grossed $ 414 million. ^[18] )

Some movies, Kalb says, can only be profitable if they are nominated for Oscars. For that reason studios plan their Oscar promotional campaigns long before the movie is even released. It’s been estimated that the Weinstein Company spent $ 15 million on its Oscar campaign for the King’s Speech , best picture winner shakespeare in love . ^[5]

Actors, too, benefit at least financially from Oscar wins. Agents and managers estimate that their clients can get more money for their next projects if they win an Oscar or at least received a nomination. ^[19] Natalie Portman was expected to become one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actresses after her 2010 win for Black Swan , and Halle Berry began asking for $ 10 million per movie following her Oscar winner for Monster’s Ball . ^[20]

Criticism

In the 21st century, Weinsteins’ take a larger role in the Oscar races, the term has become pejorative among some critics. They suggest that producers and producers are essentially gaming the system , making movies with less attention to the fact that academics have shown a preference for. “At its worst, Oscar bait stinks up the room with its pretense to prestige,” writes Sactown Magazine editor ST VanAiresdale in Slate . He cites in particular the 2011 movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close . Its producer, Scott Rudin ,

… plotted the whole project the way he’d plotted Earlier Numerous films, from The Hours to No Country for Old Men to Doubt and others: Acquire an elite property, attach elite principals, and sell the whole package to a studio as year elite fall-movie-season heavyweight. Sometimes the movie that results is great; sometimes it is not. It hardly matters. Fold an awards campaign in the movie’s more

The strategy worked-sort of. Through the combination of conspicuous campaigning and hard-ass backroom wheedling for which Rudin is renowned, Extremely Loud got its Best Picture Appointment (plus a token Best Supporting Actor nod for Max von Sydow ). The producer baited a hook, dropped it in the sea choppy of Oscar, and came away with the gratifying-and-sellable imprimatur-of at least a few Academy nibbles. ^[1]

That Particular appointment qui cam partner after the movie HAD not received Any other major movie award nomination Such As a Golden Globe , Was Widely Criticized. It was Especially Noted That It received a score of 45% from the online review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes -the worst score received By Any Best Picture nominee in the website’s history. ^[21]

Some critics think the term is overused. “If I’ve been Oscar-blogging this year, ^{[note 1]} has long been about the empty foolishness of the ‘Oscar bait’ sentence,” tweeted movie historian Mark Harris in early December 2012, ^[22]before some Oscar nominees had even been released. Four years later, he explained his objections in a conversation with fellow Vulture editor Kyle Buchanan. Primarily, he felt that he reduced the filmmakers’ motives to an attempt to win an award, regardless of what they might actually have been. ^{[23] [note 2]}

Buchanan agreed that it was “an implication that what appears to be prestigious, in its own way, as formulaic as a Marvel blockbuster”. For his part, he found the phrase to be “a kind of anti-intellectual dog whistle” for some users. Harris further Top Observed que le film by directors Such As Martin Scorsese , the Coen Brothers and David Fincher released around Oscar season HAD Many Elements in common with movies by directors like Tom Hooper and Stephen Daldryoften dismissed as Oscar bait, like star-heavy casts together, showcase scenes for the stars and heavy marketing campaigns, yet it was only films that were so labeled. “[It’s] a way of diminishing movies by feminizing them,” he said. “[I] t used to be used in the same way Masterpiece Theater was used in the 1980s and ‘ Merchant Ivory ‘ was used in the 1990s.” ^[23]

Buchanan said that it was used for the purpose of “getting better”, citing Frost / Nixon as an example, nominated as Best Picture for 2008 over well-reviewed movies from the year to the wall , The Wrestler , Rachel Getting Marriedand The Dark Knight . Responded by Harris Noting That Frost / Nixon HAD-been adapted from a “pretty un-cinematic” internship play and That icts Neither of stars ever HAD beens Nominated for an Academy Award before, whereas The Wrestlerhad several aspects often associated with Oscar, with a last-chance comeback, played by an actor making a comeback. “The difference is the presumptive maleness,” Harris reiterated. “[It] permanently exempts a director like Darren Aronofsky from charges of making Oscar bait, but Ron Howard’s record of that category for his career.” ^[23]

“Critics of the Oscar’s sentence may well be that making movies is already too difficult to have an awards-worthy product,” concedes VanAiresdale. ^[1] He nevertheless defended the use of the term. “The takeaway from Weinstein and the rest should not be that Oscar is a reductive concept that’s bad for movies,” he wrote. “Rather, bad movies are bad for movies.” Since the race for awards, he felt, moviegoers should not be so dismissive. “Oscar bait is the only reason that grown-ups have anything to do with movie theater anymore, with four franchises, anemic romantic comedies,wipes off his shoe. ” ^[1]

The fact that the concept existed and had a significant role in the production of American culture, VanAirsdale said.

For all the media hand-wringing about television filming our grip on our culture’s imagination, no one complains about Breaking Bad losing an Emmy to Homeland the way they still yelp on the topic Crash thwarting Brokeback Mountain for a Best Picture Oscar … Movie lovers want to believe that the academy shares our tastes. We want to believe that the history of the ritual of the ritual of self-congratulation. We want to believe that we are all over the world. Mostly we want to believe that a sentence like Oscar baitis somehow a film cultured so obsessed with anointing the best and greatest and best of all the Academy Awards in the first place. We would not have it both ways, and anyway, why would we want to? As the oldest surviving tradition connecting Hollywood to its audience, Oscar bait is all the movies left to insulate them from the dull, encroaching disposability of the culture around us. The only empty foolishness I can not see it it is not possible it-while we still can. ^[1]

Other critics-have complained about the effect on the yearly release calendar, by qui grouping MOST prospective Oscar winners in the last months of the year, usually in limited release, along with holiday season tentpole moviesresults in January and February Becoming The winter dump months , when new releases are low in quality and / or limited in their appeal. A similar period, from mid-August through September, also precedes the end of the year. ^[24]

“This clustering of quality films in the post-Toronto Film Festival is one of the most popular film studios and award winners,” Adam Sternbergh wrote in a 2015 Vulture Post. “[B] ut, most crucially, it alienates the movie audience.” At The Time That year’s nominations Were annoncé, he Observed, It was expected Either That Boyhood gold Selma Would win, yet the movie lathing HAD not yet gone into wide release, Reviews and another top contender, American SniperThe appointments were announced. “Of all the side effects of this silly awards-show pileup, this one seems like the silliest: People are expected to care about the awards. ^[25]

While acknowledging the dump months are a result of other factors besides the Oscars and beyond the studios’ control, such as the weather, the economy and competition from other entertainment (especially) football season, Paul Shirey at JoBlo.com nevertheless calls on Hollywood to spread out its Oscar-quality releases throughout the year:

What is to stop Hollywood from releasing some of their best fare during these “off” months? Rather than saving them to win statues, why not put them to rest? And the argument that “Academy Voters” may be about movies released early on, as the majority of them get screeners . And even with that in their court, many have confessed to never again. How is bogus that? Hollywood needs to slow its roll and give us an even spread of choices. There is no predicting the box office; absolutely no science to back it up. So, take some risks. There is no reason we can not swap Argo for the Last Standin January or any number of combinations out there. Give the audience a chance to see the year-round goods, rather than cramming for them all at homework. ^[24]

Sternbergh suggests that it might be easier to emulate the playoff formats of professional sports leagues, which divides their teams into conferences to ensure that they are able to compete in their own right. The Academy, he proposed, should return to five nominations for Best Picture and picking one nominee from each three-month quarter of the year, with the best second-place finisher getting the remaining wild card berth. ^[25]

In popular culture

The whole concept was parodied on American Dad! in his episode, ” Tearjerker “, in which Roger produces a film, Oscar Gold , depicting “an alcoholic mentally retarded Jewish boy and his cancer-ridden puppy set during The Holocaust ,” ^[26] in which he kills viewers by literally making them cry to death. The tag line is “Go for Oscar Gold !”

In the British comedy series Extras , actress Kate Winslet plays a caricature of herself desperate for an Oscar. During the episode, Winslet tells the character Andy Millman (portrayed by Ricky Gervais ) that she took the role in the unnamed Holocaust movie, claiming that such films Schindler’s List and The Pianist have “Oscars coming out of the ass”. ^[27] Later in the episode, Winslet also muses that “playing a mental” also guarantees an Oscar win. ^[28]Winslet would later win the first Academy Award , Best Actress , for her role as an illiterate train Nazi inThe Reader (2008). ^[29]

In the movie Tropic Thunder (2008), characters Tugg Speedman ( Ben Stiller ) and Kirk Lazarus ( Robert Downey Jr. ) discuss the concept regarding Speedman’s role in the fictional film Simple Jack , in which Lazarus notes that “you never go full delay “, contrasting the Oscar successes of Dustin Hoffman ( Rain Man , 1988) and Tom Hanks ( Forrest Gump , 1994) with Sean Penn ‘s failure to win an award for his role in I Am Sam (2001). Tropic Thunderreceived protests from disability rights organizations due to constant ict use of the word ” delayStiller defended the scene as being intended for the use of such subjects as a way to win awards. ^[30]

During the week before the 2017 Academy Awards telecast , NBC talk show host Seth Meyers ran a parody trailer for Oscar Bait , “a film that is shamelessly timed for awards season” on his show . It featured clips from Meyers and others involved with his show as actors with racial tension and latent homosexuality along with “pretentiously artistic shots of a man’s hand grazing wheat”. Intertitles quoted purported reviews from real publications, Such As “If you like movies WHERE a character is forced to Overcome disease is uncommon, Then this, my friends, is your movie” and the parody movie Comparing favorably with The King ‘^[31]

In other media awards

The “bait” phrasing has been used in the context of the other major American popular-media awards. Cheek to Cheek , the album of the jazz standards Lady Gaga began recording in 2013 with Tony Bennett , has been referred to as ” Grammy bait”. ^[32] Later, in 2013, The Daily Beast came out with an article that bemoaned the Primetime Emmy Awards ‘ apparent antipathy to the performances of child actors in television shows that many received nominations and noted that they

… have played characters overcoming bullying, substance abuse, coming to terms with their sexuality, suffocating parents, absent parents, dying parents, sexual awakenings, and PTSD .

The material screams Emmy bait. But they will never get a shot at being rewarded Sunday night and they may never get their appointments they deserve, no matter how good they are. ^[33]

Those uses suggest work which aspirations would be likely to be rewarded by awards, rather than marketing that depends on awards nominations to turn a profit. However, on Broadway , where theatrical productions live for Tony Awards , the “Tony bait” has not been seen, many believe those awards have been determined and marketed. Their complaints are similar to those of movie enthusiasts. ^[34]

“The Tony deadline is now the central organizing event of Broadway, for better and for worse,” producer Thomas Viertel told The New York Times in 2012. late April. Nearly half of a new season in March or April. “Many theater producers and their star actors have the highest possible profile for Tony voters,” the Times wrote. “[They] open at the last possible moment so their shows (and, hopefully, the rave reviews) are fresh in the minds of Tony nominators and voters.” ^[34]

Tony nominations are announced a few days after the deadline for eligibility, with the awards themselves being given a nationally televised ceremony in June. “The weeks after that are often times a bloodbath on Broadway, when several productions typically fall in the absence of an awards-generated boost at the box office.” If the Tonys do not happen for us, “said Stephen Byrd, another Producer, “it will hurt the word-of-mouth buzz about the show, and you have a hard time keeping it up.” While the influx of tourists into the city to increase the number of times they are employed,Best Musical Gold Best Play . “Look, tourists do not come and say, ‘I’ve never heard of this show, but I’ll go see it,'” says Nancy Nagel Gibbs, producer of Peter and the Starcatcher , a 2012 Tony nominee for the latter award. ^[34]

Many of the winners in recent years have been in the process of being closer to the deadline. Across the Atlantic, is London ‘s West End , the awards-driven clustering of Openings is less of a problem Because The two major awards For Those productions, the Olivier Awards and the Evening Standard Theater Awards , are Given out six months apart. The Broadway LeagueOne of the two organizations that sponsors the Tonys, has considered moving the eligibility date back to the end of the calendar year to encourage more openings in the summer. But that is not likely to be shown during February, a sweeps month on American television. ^[34]

See also

• Hallmark holiday , one perceived to be primarily a retailer
• Very special episode , a thematically similar phenomenon in television

Notes