Indie and the Oscars
Dateline: 3/15/00
by Beck Finley
From the beginning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was under the control of Hollywood. Presidents of the organization have included such studio heavyweights as William deMille, Frank Capra, Walter Wanger, Bette Davis, Jean Hersholt, Arthur Freed, Gregory Peck, and Karl Malden, so it's no surprise that every year the Academy Awards are the most hyped and overblown Hollywood production.
Take the winners in the Best Picture categories from the last few years: Titanic (1997), Forrest Gump (1994), and Schindler's List (1993), all produced by companies like Paramount, Orion, Universal Studios, United Artists, and Warner Bros. The closest to indie that Oscar has gotten were a few Miramax productions, (some say indie, some say not) and films such as Shakespeare in Love (1998), The English Patient (1996), The Last Emperor (1987), Chariots of Fire (1981), or maybe even Dances With Wolves (1990), funded with Kevin Costner's own Hollywood money. This year's Best Picture nominees were produced and distributed by Dreamworks (American Beauty); Miramax and Film Colony (The Cider House Rules); Touchstone (The Insider); Castle Rock and Warner Bros.(The Green Mile); and the aptly named Hollywood Pictures (The Sixth Sense).
For this very fine reason, indie fans are apt to ignore this gala event altogether. (See the forum on this topic) Better, however, to sit in front of the television and hoot at the long musical numbers, the bad films reaping undeserved recognition, and root for the underdogs. Fine filmmaking, on occasion, receives its recognition. Films such as Fox Searchlight's Boys Don't Cry, Fineline Picture's Tumbleweeds, and Woody Allen's independent picture Sweet and Lowdown are nominated in major categories. Is Hollywood catching on to the fact that the best stories are often created outside of the studio's tired formulas?
If the Oscars are anything like the Screen Actor's Guild Awards, we know that American Beauty, with seven nominations, is going to sweep the show, making the schmaltzy king of Hollywood, Steven Spielberg, a very happy man. However, no self-respecting indie fan would begrudge Kevin Spacey (in indies such as Hurley Burley, The Usual Suspects, Glengarry Glen Ross) another day in the sun.
Next: We can only hope
