Oscar Roundup 2012: Category Fraud Strikes Again!

Last night I saw the new Tarantino flick, Django Unchained.  Django was obviously a story about Django (Jaime Foxx) and his bounty hunter companion Dr. King Shultz (Christoph Waltz), the two were in the majority of the film.  At the moment Waltz was nominated in Supporting Actor category at the Golden Globes.  At the earliest part of award season Waltz was placed in the Supporting Actor category.  On November 8th the website goldderby.com reported Waltz would be campaigned in the Lead category instead.  After the lead race became crowded the Weinstein Company switched Waltz back to supporting, and if you look at the poster you will see him being campaigned in supporting category.  This Oscar placement, or category fraud has gone on for years on end, but there are a couple of cases this year, which may take things too far.

Over the years the process of category fraud has occurred on many levels, supporting performances competing in the lead category, and lead competing the supporting categories.  Sometimes these have happened when an actor has two great performances in one year.  Most recently Jaime Foxx from Django was part of this form of category fraud.  Foxx had two great performances in 2004 for Ray, and Collateral; he was a lead in both, but nominated in supporting for Collateral.  This happened with Jessica Lange in 1982 as well; she was nominated in the Lead Actress race for Frances, and supporting for Tootsie, her role in Tootsie was the leas role in the film.  Julianne Moore also has two brilliant performances as both similar as repressed housewife in the 50s, in the films Far from Heaven, and The Hours; she was nominated for both, but in supporting for The Hours.  All of these happen, but they are not the most common, nor are they the first instances.

Some of the first instances of category fraud occurred based on age.  Tatum O'Neil won for a lead performance in Paper Moon (1973) at the young age of 10.  One could argue that during the same year Linda Blair was a co-lead in The Exorcist; she was 14.  This trend continued throughout the years Justin Henry in Kramer vs. Kramer in 1979 (8 years old),Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine (10 years old), Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense (11 years old), Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit (14 years old), Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker (16 years old), Sal Mineo in Rebel Without a Cause (17 years old), Timothy Hutton in Ordinary People (20 years old).  While these are not all of the cases these are a majority of the cases where younger people who were leads in their film were moved to the supporting category because of age.

Over the years this has changed slightly but mainly will change because of the competitive nature of campaigning, and the odds of getting a person a nomination, Keisha Castle Hughes bounced around different categories, but rightfully ended in the Best Actress category for Whale Ride (2002).  Hughes was in supporting at the Screen Actor's Guild, but the Oscars play by their own rules and did not follow the crazy campaigning from the studios.  This happens sometimes, for example Kate Winslet in The Reader, but the Academy often does listen to the FYC (for your consideration) ads, and previous awards.

The major example of award shows (and most likely the Academy) buying this lead player as supporting this year is with Phillip Seymour Hoffman in The Master.  While The Master does focus on the lost soul Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) the film is also about the journey of Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman).  Hoffman has been a victim of category fraud twice now, the other time was his portrayal of Father Brandon Flynn in Doubt.  Why campaign this great actor (who has won in the Best Actor) in the supporting category twice.  This year the lead category is incredibly crowded, and they want the film to get as many nominations as possible.  The year Doubt was nominated there were also a lot of strong performances, but I suspect if they "worked" hard enough Hoffman could have received a nomination in the lead category.

The big question in the case with Hoffman is why does such a well respected actor get pushed down?  This is not typically the case, most of the time these lead performances in supporting categories are for lesser known or actors trying to get their first nomination: Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain, Jennifer Connelly in A Beautiful Mind, Marcia Gay Harden in Pollock, Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls are just a few recent examples.

The problem with rampant category fraud is that the Oscars have become more of a game, or political strategy rather than a true test of defining the best in film.  Yet the game is becoming too much, with criticism all over the board from David Cronenberg, Joaquin Phoenix, and past winner Anthony Hopkins, with a win from The Silence of the Lambs.

Hopkins win is also seen as category fraud by many as well, during The Silence of the Lambs. Hopkins was in the film for less than 30 minutes, but won the Oscar for Best Actor, because of his commanding performance.  While most people do not argue about this win, this would still be considered category fraud.  Other instances within this type of situation could be Patricia Neal in Hud, Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line, Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, David Nivens in Separate Tables, and Nicole Kidman in The Hours.  Together all of these roles have a large impact on the meaning of their film, but largely could be considered supporting players.

If the Oscars continue to remain a game, or about the politics of a film getting more nominations then these instances of category fraud like Waltz and Hoffman will continue to happen.  Both of these men are clear leads, and are both excellent in their films, their work should speak for itself.  When you have clear leads like Casey Affleck getting a nomination in a film where he is the star in the supporting category there is a problem.  Here is to hoping the Oscars work on this problem.

Academy Awards Best Picture Revisited: Brokeback Mountain (2005)

I took last weekend off but as the critics pick their top ten lists, and as award season starts to roll out, hear comes 2005 and the year Brokeback Mountain was snubbed as the Best Picture winner.  The other nominees this year were: Crash (winner), Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, and Munich.


Brokeback Mountain was directed by the masterful Ang Lee.  Lee's work includes 1995's Sense and Sensibility; his adaptation of one of Jane Austen's most famous books shockingly did not earn him a nomination in the Best Director category.  Lee's first pair of nominations came in 2000, when he was nominated as a producer and director for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.  Looking back at this year, Lee was a favorite to win this award, not the eventual winner Steven Soderbergh.  Crouching Tiger earned him wins at the Golden Globes, the Director's Guild Awards, and at the British  version  of the Academy Awards (BAFTA).  Soderbergh was a double nominee that year for Erin Brockovich and Traffic; he won for Traffic.  While Brokeback Mountain did not win for Best Picture, Lee was the winner in 2005 for Best Director, and he deserved this honor.  Lee's direction is often lyrical, and he does a good job capturing every emotion,  and every beautiful aspect of the scenery.  Lee's direction was the best in 2005.


Every time I look back on this year, I yawn.  I took a week of because I honestly have not watch many of the best picture nominees in a long time.  I have watch both both Brokeback Mountain and Crash more than twice, while i have probably only seen the other three films once.  Many people complained that Brokeback was a letdown, or too slow moving, but the beauty of the story always captivated me.  2005 was the year with so much hope, but more letdown.  Peter Jackson was back with a reinvention of King Kong.  While the film's technical aspects were great, and his direction was decent this film was did not live up to the standards.  Woody Allen had two films the first Melinda and Melinda was not good, and the second Match Point was solid, but not deserving of a Best Picture spot.  Rob Marshall was fresh of the train riding high on his year with Chicago and he failed to excite with Memoirs of Geisha.  Sam Mendes had Jarhead which was solid but not good enough to crack the best picture barrier. City of God director Fernando Meirelles followed his this amazing film with the ever solid Constant Gardener. The Constant Gardener was too divisive, but had a lot of support in the technical categories.  The films that ended up having the most support were safe, and solid. The one film that would have added some excitement to this year was David Cronenberg's A History of Violence.  This film should have replaced Capote.


The biggest story to come out of 2005 was the David and Goliath battle between Crash and Brokeback Mountain.  Brokeback Mountain was juggernaut going into the night of the Academy Awards.  This film swept 99% of the major precursor awards, had the most nominations (8),  and was the highest grossing film of the nominees.  These are key elements to a film's eventual win.  There were however two things that were signs the film might lose.  The first sign came when the nominations were announced and Brokeback missed out on an editing nomination.  The Best Picture winner typically has a nomination in this category.  Brokeback won no awards from at the Screen Actor's Guild Awards (SAG).  While none of the actors were slated to win that night, and the Crash ensemble had a lot of famous names this loss showed there was an interesting lack of support.  SAG has gone both ways.  Sometimes SAG honors an ensemble on sheer cast numbers/the amount of famous people within the cast-Traffic, and other times they have crowned films because they are on a steamroll to the Best Picture Oscar-No Country for Old Men.

I will never forget the night Brokeback lost the Oscar for Best Picture.  The film went into the night with 8 nominations including: Best Picture, Best Director-Ang Lee, Best Actor-Heath Ledger, Best Supporting Actress-Michelle Williams, Best Supporting Actor-Jake Gyllenhaal, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Score.  Throughout the evening the film won Score, Adapted Screenplay and Best Director, while Crash won Original Screenplay and Film Editing.  I would have honored Brokeback with Best Cinematography as well but that went to Memoirs of Geisha. As Jack Nicholson cam on stage to announce Best Picture, and as he opened the envelope his reaction was priceless; he was shocked, he said "Wow."  Crash came out of nowhere to undeservingly steal the Best Picture prize (I would not have even nominated the film for Best Picture).  

Brokeback deserved the Best Picture award, and after watching this film last night, I am sure that there was some homophobia that prevented its win.  Even liberal Hollywood has some bigots. Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine who starred in and won an Oscar for Lead Actor in the film Marty stated "I didn’t see it and I don’t care to see it. I know they say it’s a good picture, but I don’t care to see it." Then he added, "If John Wayne were alive, he’d be rolling over in his grave!"  This is hard to digest, and guess what Ernest, John Wayne never played a sheep herder.  Liberals in Hollywood picked Crash because it focused on an issue that was still controversial, as to not raise suspicion about the deep seated discomfort with a gay male love story.  This was a year the Academy got it so wrong, it's embarrassing.