What is an Oscar bait movie?
With every year comes new movies – some considerably more memorable than others. When we look back to certain years, we can closely associate certain periods with the films that were released within them.
For example, when considering 1977, we think of Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Eraserhead, and Saturday Night Fever – seminal movies that significantly impacted popular culture. 1999 was another big year, giving us movies like Fight Club, The Virgin Suicides, The Matrix, American Beauty and many, many more.
Lots of these era-defining movies scooped up Academy Award nominations for their brilliance, deserving every bit of praise they earned. However, alongside the swathes of genuinely good movies which have received nods from the Oscars, there are many movies that were so clearly made to appeal to Academy voters.
To be nominated for an Oscar is a sign of great success and a surefire way to earn lots of money from people eager to see what the fuss is all about. Many movies have played into this idea a little too hard, and it becomes glaringly obvious when a film has been made with the sole intention of becoming Oscar bait.
What is Oscar bait?
Movies considered Oscar bait are usually over-dramatic, opulently decorated and lengthy productions made on a large budget. Often depicting characters that have been hard-done-by and rose to success after overcoming obstacles, throughout the years, Oscar bait films have been identified as sentimental and overly emotional, sometimes even relying heavily on American propaganda.
Oscar bait movies can also be period dramas, war epics or biopics, but that doesn’t mean that every movie that falls into one of these categories is necessarily made with the intention of earning an Oscar nomination. Usually, you can tell when a movie is Oscar bait because it is overly extravagant, featuring an intense, sentimental score, expansive sets and lots of high-profile actors. All of these factors make the movie more likely to succeed in more than one Oscar category.
Some movies are so obviously Oscar bait, such as Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, The Artist, and more recently, Lion, Green Book, and Babylon. All of these movies were successful in scooping up more than one Oscar nomination or win, with some being much better (or faring more successfully) than others.
Other times, there have been movies that failed to pick up any nominations despite their painfully obvious attempts at becoming an Oscar favourite. These include 2004’s Alexander, 2013’s Jobs and 2022’s Amsterdam.
The biggest Oscar bait movie, according to science
Two UCLA professors once decided to find out the most ‘Oscar bait movie’ released between 1985 and 2014. Their findings led them to crown 1990’s Come See the Paradise as the winner, a movie starring Dennis Quaid and Tamlyn Tomita. Coming in at 138 minutes, the Alan Parker-directed movie had all the makings of Oscar bait. It was, like many Oscar bait films, released at the end of the year so that it would be in a prime position to receive a nomination for the spring award season.
The professors took into account many other factors, such as the themes of the movie. Come See the Paradise explores the attack on Pearl Harbour, a devastating event that clearly spells ‘Oscar nomination’ in the eyes of many film producers. Tackling themes of struggle and disaster, with a hefty dose of romance thrown in, there is no surprise that Come See the Paradise was named the biggest Oscar bait movie.
While it did earn a Palme d’Or nomination at the Cannes Film Festival, Parker’s film did not receive a single nod from the Academy Awards.
When are the Oscars?
The 96th Academy Awards will take place on March 10th in California, with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer leading with a whopping 13 nominations. However, it is Bradley Cooper’s Maestro that has been labelled this year’s biggest case of Oscar bait.
The actor/filmmaker’s biopic about Leonard Bernstein dissects his relationship with Felicia Montealegre, played by Carey Mulligan. While the movie has been largely praised, many people have been quick to call out its Oscar bait features, such as being a melodramatic biopic that actually doesn’t dig as deep into its character as it leads you to suggest.
Maestro seems like an unlikely winner, competing against movies like Oppenheimer, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon and The Zone of Interest for ‘Best Picture’. But then again, at the Academy Awards, anything can happen.
