Last year, when the Academy, mainly known as the Oscars, announced nominees for the annual award night, there were films to look out for.
As Ugandans, the thought of having a Ugandan director, Moses Bwayo nominated in one of the categories was almost insane.
His film, Bobi Wine: The People’s President racked up nominations such as the Golden Globe and in the mix also ended up on the shortlist during the film’s biggest night.
Now, much as Bwayo did not win, that was a moment the local film industry could hardly leverage because, well, there was Bobi Wine.
This year, as a country, there is nothing specific to look out for at the Oscars, though that does not mean that we should not care.
We still watched a lot of films the previous year and we would love to see what the Academy members actually think about them.
Every year, when nominees are announced, there’s a film the general public usually thinks was snubbed, or an actor people widely believed deserved to get a nomination.
For instance, the various times we have seen backlash at the awards, for instance with the Oscars so white boycott when Will Smith was snubbed after his stellar performance on Concussion or the general absence of female directors on the nomination list.
But outside the belief that one or two films were shut in the cold, there’s also a belief that some films are forced into the nomination list. These are films people have come off late to call Oscar bait, unpopular with the masses, generally lack a compelling story but hit the emotional targets.
Those have been films such as The Slumdog Millionaire, these are films that check most of the boxes, racial tension, characters are overcoming a rare disease, and of late, they have added a sexuality tension. This has meant that the Oscars have become more critical than they are audience friendly.
For instance, when The Dark Knight, that film by Christopher Nolan which stars Heath Ledger for instance lost Best Picture to The Slumdog Millionaire; to date, this is still considered the biggest robbery in the history of the Academies.
Slumdog Millionaire then put themselves in an awkward position, as a beloved film that made many people happy, but at the same time, it became one of the biggest academy villains.
A villain film is that film which gets as many nominations but just a few people, probably a niche audience really love it, some even think it is a horrible film.
Which brings us to this year; the nominations were released on Thursday.
After all the nominations had been read, the leading film was Emilia Perez. Now, this film is an anomaly, it is a narcos type of drama, drugs and gangs, just that it has a twist.
It is a musical – complete with sing-talking like you are watching Hamilton or In the Heights; see what I did there? Anyway, Emilia Perez is not as bad as critics have already called it but not as good for 13 nominations at film’s biggest night.Emilia Perez is neither a good story, drama or musical and it is not paying homage to Mexican culture, it gets many things wrong.
Or did we also mention that this film racked up nominations at the expense of formidable films such as Jon M Chu for directing Wicked, Denzel Washington for Gladiators 2, and Angelina Jolie for Maria among others.
But anyway, at the end that is the award season.
