I often hear people lamenting the supposed bias that the Oscars have against genre films. Usually, this is in regards to things like horror movies and comic book adaptations, with science fiction and fantasy sometimes thrown in there as well. I won’t deny this bias exists entirely, but I do think it’s massively overstated. Its true that these types of movies rarely get Oscar nominations, but do they necessarily deserve it? I love horror and superhero films but I hardly ever find them to be among the best of the year. Most film critics, when they release their end of year lists, rarely include a lot of these genres, so if the Academy does have a bias, its one they share with many critics.
It’s well known that most of the movies nominated for Academy Awards are realistic dramas, often about social issues or historical events. When you look at the films considered to be among the best of all-time, you usually see stuff like The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia and The Shawshank Redemption. These examples are all relatively realistic, dramatic works. Of course there are a few genre films that rise to these levels, but they are few and far between, and when they do the Academy often recognizes them.
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The science fiction movie Blade Runner 2049 got mostly technical nods, but did get a cinematography nomination. I personally thought it should have gotten nominated for Best Picture, but I think missing out on it may have more to do with its financial failure than its genre, especially considering there was a sci fi Best Picture nominee just last year in
“To me if there’s an achievement to lighting and photography in a film, it’s because nothing in the film stands out, it all works as a piece.” (Roger Deakins, cinematographer of True Grit) In the 2010 adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel, True Grit, the directors, Ethan and Joel Coen, and Roger Deakins display the beauty of cinematography within the movie. And although the film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, it did not win any! It most certainly deserves to win based on the film’s use of editing, camera movement and framing, and lighting and sound.
Crime is mostly mainstream genre but there are some independent films such as Knock around Guys (2001) and Layer Cakes (2004). Crime can be classified as a mainstream genre because of the A-list star that appears its movie, e.g. Brad Pitt in Seven, and Tom cruise in Collateral. Another explanation for the genre’s mainstream status is that studio knew the crime genre was a mainstream genre and produce them e.g. Collateral was produced by DreamWorks and Paramount. Also this film have a large appeal of the genre so therefore make sure that it will attract mainstream audiences. These studios have huge
The horror genre of film captives the frightfulness of individual fear, horror is the only genre that is meant captive the terror of the audience. The horror- the genre has been around well over one hundred- years there has been an extension of different types of horror and how the audience perceives horror. Many would even argue that horror films often reflect the fear of society in that certain time period. The evolution of horror reflects the evolution of society’s fear.
How the genre influences the viewer depends of the viewer. Some people watch a movie to learn or study. While others can watch the same movie for entertainment purposes. The way a movie is interpreted by the viewer is completely dependent on how the viewer experiences the film. Comedy movies make you happy and laugh. While horror movies make you cringe in fear. Genre can influence the viewer on many levels. It just depends on the reason the person is watching the film for in the first place.
In Hollywood today, most films can be categorized according to the genre system. There are action films, horror flicks, Westerns, comedies and the likes. On a broader scope, films are often separated into two categories: Hollywood films, and independent or foreign ‘art house’ films. Yet, this outlook, albeit superficial, was how many viewed films. Celebrity-packed blockbusters filled with action and drama, with the use of seamless top-of-the-line digital editing and special effects were considered ‘Hollywood films’. Films where unconventional themes like existentialism or paranoia, often with excessive violence or sex or a combination of both, with obvious attempts to displace its audiences from the film were often attributed with the generic label of ‘foreign’ or ‘art house’ cinema.
Friedman, L., Desser, D., Kozloff, S., Nichimson, M., & Prince, S. (2014). An introduction to film genres. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company.
The Traditional Western has often been overlooked at awards time; only three have been successful at the Academy Awards, winning Oscars for Best Picture. These include ‘Cimarron’ (1933), Dances with Wolves (1990) and ‘The Unforgiven’ (1992.)
The logic behind heaping plaudits on the upscale slashers and highbrow horror pictures lies, as with foreign horror, with the concept of aesthetic distance. Film analyst Ken Hanke theorizes that many critics simply praise so-called highbrow horror films because the acclaim comes from "people with little or no knowledge of the genre...What seemed so fresh and creative to them was largely a reshuffling of a very old bag of tricks."
Film scholars around the world agree that all genres of film are part of the “genre cycle”. This cycle contains four different stages that a specific genre goes through. These stages are: primitive, classic, revisionist, and parody. Each stage that the genre goes through brings something different to that genre’s meaning and what the audience expects. I believe that looking at the horror genre will be the most beneficial since it has clearly gone through each stage.
Defining a film genre is in some ways difficult and simplistic. Every genre has stated what would define its boundaries. The difficult part is finding one that is solidified by the movies in the genre. The stated definition that this paper will digest and regurgitate is that a Western is a film which is set in the American frontier west. The typical time setting is somewhere in the mid to late 19th century and early 20th century(Dirks, 1). They glorify the past-fading values and aspirations of the mythical by-gone age of the American West(Dirks, 1). Over time, however, Westerns have been redefined, re-invented and expanded, dismissed, re-discovered, and spoofed. This actually makes the definition more lucid, making other films flexible enough to fit quite nicely into the genre.
The idea of the genre developed from the need for steady box-office success. The same basic combination of precise plots, character types, and themes, proved to draw crowd after crowd into the theaters to see their favorite stars and story lines played out. But somewhere along the way the very thing that drew in these crowds started to evolve to become greater and diverse. Cabaret, Unforgiven, and The Godfather are clear examples of this
the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Films and 27 nominations.(Wikipedia, Boys Don't Cry,2014) "Boys Dont Cry" did receive great awards and nomination but also received extreme controversy.
Various film genres are recognisable by the way they are presented and patterned or the way that they portray a certain emotion or feeling, as those of humour or horror. There is no distinct way by which we can define genre. Some films incorporate various aspects of different genres, thus we cannot define exactly what kind of text-book definition genre it is and being that all people are different, a comedy to one person may be a complete bore to the next. In a sense, certain films portray their genre as a subjective opinion.
It’s no question that genre is a very important factor in a screenwriter’s pursuit of creating a highly marketable film. Considering genre types in writing a script for an upcoming film is important to not only the target audience, but the technical characteristics of certain genres. Every film created is categorized into a specific genre based on elements of that genre type, as well as accompanied by technical aspects that classify a film as a specific genre type. Some films are finalized as purely one type of genre, while in other instances the film gains the classification of type different genre types. Sound, cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing, and narrative are the formal elements of film that help determine a final product into a genre class, or multiple genre classes. Yet even dwelling in the subcategories of major genre types, like science fiction or action, films also have the ability to shift genre within their screen time and not only be placed in a genre category but jump genre types as well. This is caused greatly by the blending of genre types that have elements that complement each other’s qualities well and can easily be transitioned from one type to the next. Where Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) series prequel Prometheus (2012) began under the science fiction type genre and develops a gradual transition into horror, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s Cabin in the Woods (2012) flips the two genres, beginning as a horror genre than transitions into a science fiction category.
Film genres are categories, classifications or groups of films that have a similar, familiar or instantly recognizable patterns, techniques or conventions that include one or more of the following: setting, content, themes, plot, motifs, styles, structures, situations, characters, and stars (filmsite.org and notes). There are many categories of film genre. These categories can cover practically any film ever made by man, although film categories can never be precise. By isolating the various elements in a film and categorizing them in genres, it is possible to easily evaluate a film within its genre and allow for meaningful comparisons and some judgements on greatness. Some genres are considered period-specific, occurring primarily in one time period. One such example is film noir (filmsite.org).