Based on some incredibly unscientific research, the Academy Awards is everyone’s favorite award show. Call it the Oscars, call it what you will, but there is nothing better than the red carpet, the tribute reels and the passion for film enjoyed by the masses. Sure, awards don’t mean anything — they celebrate the privileged and probably contribute to the moral decay of our society — but the Oscars claim to maintain a high standard for the fine art of film.

I was looking forward to watching the show last Sunday, but there was one problem in the back of my mind. These past few years it seems like the same sort of films get nominated across the board, confirming that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences doesn’t recognize a lot of movies but just a set of films designed for the Academy Awards.

The formula pushes filmmakers to make better films and get the recognition, but it also feels a little boring and empty. Not to mention, audiences grow tired of them really quickly.

The “Oscars Movie” has truly emerged as a genre. To qualify, a film must meet a few simple criteria. First, it has to have a big name director, who’s nominated every year or every other year. The same actors also tend to pepper these movies. They also have a certain dramatic tone — not too sad, and slightly witty, but most of them are certainly not comedies. Last, and most importantly, the film usually is released sometime between November and January.

This isn’t to discount any of the talented people who are nominated for awards every year, but the Academy Awards seem to be given to the same people.

The same crop of directors and producers gets nominated nearly every year for Best Director and Best Picture. It’s as if Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Alexander Payne and David O. Russell, who albeit are talented, get nominated by default if they make a movie that year, regardless of the quality.  Minority directors are rare, however in the last few years they’ve been breaking through the glass ceiling.

Powerful performances deserving of recognition, such as Greta Gerwig in “Frances Ha,” often fall by the wayside because the movies weren’t released in November or December. As a matter of fact, the sheer abundance of serious dramas clearly reaching for an award left legendary actors, like Tom Hanks and Robert Redford, snubbed this year.

All four main actors in “American Hustle” were nominated this year. They’re great actors and great performers, but they weren’t the best performances of the year. The characters in this year’s films were sad, violent and troubled and we see them in movies every year. Plus, young, bright Jennifer Lawrence just isn’t believable as an erratic housewife.  “American Hustle” was forgettable as a whole. In fact, it was so forgettable that Academy voters forgot to vote for it and it went 0 for 10 — it didn’t win anything.  I’ve seen movies like it and there will probably be more. In fact, I’m sure I will see more like it because it follows the “Oscars movie” formula to a tee.

The Academy Awards are fabulous, but I hope next year the Academy will recognize a greater variety of voices that contribute to the motion picture arts. Innovative and exciting movies are out there — the new interesting forces behind them should be considered the new “Oscars movie,” rather than the stale dramas we see every year.

Cassie-lee Grimaldi is a senior television, radio and film major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected] and reached on Twitter @cassiegrimaldi.

Published on March 4, 2014 at 1:00 am