The 10 biggest Oscar Bait movies, according to science
The Academy Awards, otherwise known as the Oscars, remains the oldest and most prestigious of the four major annual American entertainment awards, its equivalents being the Emmys for television, the Tonys for theatre and the Grammys for music. Los Angeles has hosted the Academy Awards annually since 1929, two years after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) was founded.
Ensuring the awards are judged on artistic merit over popularity, each year, votes are cast by a pool of revered motion picture professionals. A total of 3,140 Oscar statuettes have been awarded since 1929, and as we breathe down the neck of the ceremony’s 100th year, very few people know why these highly sought-after golden statuettes are named Oscars. As it happens, the name’s origin is disputed, but the nickname first officially appeared in a 1934 newspaper article written by columnist Sidney Skolsky about the sixth ceremony.
A biography on the life of Bette Davis, the 1941 Academy president, claimed that she nicknamed the trophies after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson. However, other sources argue that the name began with the early Academy executive director Margaret Herrick. When Herrick first laid eyes on the lump of gold-plated bronze, she allegedly likened it to “Uncle Oscar”, a nickname for her cousin Oscar Pierce.
Either way, the Academy Awards have haunted the dreams and nightmares of actors, screenwriters, directors and producers for almost a century and remain the highlight of the awards season. While the industry proves lucrative to the biggest stars, the financially driven are best suited to a vocation in investment banking. Most people will enter into the acting or filmmaking profession with artistic passion at heart, and the vision of success is invariably that of a teary-eyed acceptance speech, Oscar in hand.
Such is the extent of the Oscars’ allure that, for many decades, projects have been called out as ‘Oscar Bait’. Of course, one would assume that any discerning director strives for eminence, with trophies as a logical byproduct. However, it seems that certain formulae and themes tend to beguile the electorate the most.
Often, ‘Oscar Bait’ accusations are thrown in the direction of movies that yearn for distinction, especially in more technical fields like cinematography, makeup and hairstyling, costume design or production design. While most movies are shot using conventional methods, harkening back to the monochrome days of Hollywood’s Golden Age will surely turn some heads. That’s certainly what the creators of the silent movie The Artist hoped in 2012.
Other criteria that can swing the voters in favour of a particular movie are moving or sociopolitically pertinent themes. Prime examples of this include Schindler’s List and Forrest Gump. But what’s the most obvious ‘Oscar Bait’ production of all time?
Obviously, it is difficult to answer such a definite question, but that’s where scientists come in handy. In 2014, UCLA professors Gabriel Rossman and Oliver Schilke conducted a comprehensive analysis of around 3,000 films eligible for Oscars between 1985 and 2009. They devised an algorithm to determine characteristics that increase a film’s likelihood of receiving an Oscar nomination. Key factors considered in their algorithm included the movie’s release timing, distribution by major studios, past Oscar nominations of its actors, writers, and directors, as well as the presence of specific genres and plot keywords associated with past Oscar-nominated films, as indicated by IMDb.
The results of the analyses can be seen in the list below of the top ten biggest ‘Oscar Bait’ projects. Alan Parker’s 1990 flm Come See the Paradise tops the list. The movie exposed the unjust treatment of Japanese Americans in the US following the attack on Pearl Harbour during World War II. The movie was released in a select few cities during the last week of 1990 to make it eligible for the 63rd Academy Awards ceremony. However, it was not nominated for a single Oscar, panned by critics and moviegoers under the shadow of the 1991 ‘Best Picture’ winner Dances With Wolves.
The 10 biggest Oscar Bait movies:
- Come See the Paradise – Alan Parker (1990)
- Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – Peter Jackson (2003)
- The People vs. Larry Flynt – Miloš Forman (1996)
- Born on the Fourth of July – Oliver Stone (1989)
- Wild at Heart – David Lynch (1990)
- Jackie Brown – Quentin Tarantino (1997)
- The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada – Tommy Lee Jones (2005)
- Schindler’s List – Steven Spielberg (1993)
- The Aviator – Martin Scorsese (2004)
- Confessions of a Dangerous Mind – George Clooney (2002)
