The Academy Awards is one of the biggest beginning of the year events, coming in second to the Super Bowl.
Every year, the same kind of devout ritualism that the Super Bowl entails is practiced by those devoted to the film industry. Twenty-four awards are honored to the individuals who work tirelessly to bring art and entertainment to people around the world. Actors designers, directors, cinematographers, editors, sound mixers, all work on teams on the many films honored with a nomination. These teams gather in a theatre hall somewhere in California and celebrate film only three weeks after the Super Bowl.
Megan Hall | Rawr
The journey to the Academy Awards begins with the first big film release of the year. This year “Mad Max: Fury Road” was the first major film released destined for nominations and we ended the year with, “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed,” with many great titles in between such as “The Danish Girl,” “Room,” “The Martian,” “Bridge of Spies,” “Joy,” “The Revenant,” “Sicario,” “The Hateful Eight,” “Carol, Spotlight,” “The Big Short,” and many more wonderful works.
As in football there are many things that qualify the team for a win. Year after year the qualities qualifying artistic teams for nominations, and ultimately the golden man, are the films that are transformative in nature.
Leonardo Decaprio in “The Revenant” and Matt Damon in “The Martian” exemplify these transformative qualities in their performances. In “The Martian,” we watch Damon transform from a fit accomplished astronaut, to a skinny, starving man ready to give up hope before his crew can return to save him.
In “The Revenant,” we watch Decaprio transform from a sturdy, strong willed ranger willing to take on any challenge that came his way, into a man who cannot even speak and is forced to watch his son die. He then treks across the vast west barely able to walk. He makes his journey in order to seek revenge on the man who killed his boy.
These stories put the characters through unimaginable hardships – experiences that you could not come out of the same. The actors that play these rolls are the best of the best. This is what makes good art. This is what wins Academy Awards in all categories, not only acting.
This year “Mad Max: Fury Road” was nominated for 10 Academy Awards for best picture and the many faucets of its design components. Although no character in this movie went through a significant change that is comparable to “The Revenant” or “The Martian” the movie was still transformative. “Mad Max” in its many elements transformed the world through their design.
Their team built an immersive soundscape that transformed audience imagination, beautiful special effects that transformed the environment and the characters in it, the costume design transformed the actors on camera to a nearly unrecognizable state, and the amazing directing that brought all of these components together to create a truly transformative film.
Kevin Neighbors
Rawr
As in football, we approach the big day, we begin throwing our bets in for the many nominations and their winners based on the criteria we value as important in film.
This year as the Oscars approached I put my money on four films taking the majority of the Academy Awards. I was sure “The Revenant” would take home best director, cinematography, and I knew Decaprio would take home best actor. From the second I saw “Mad Max” I put my money on their team taking home the tech and design awards in this year”s Oscars and as expected they did just that.
“The Danish Girl” received a few Nominations this year. I was not sure what they would take home, but due to the transformative nature the film follows, I was sure it was bound to get something and in fact they took home the award for best actress in a supporting.
“Ex Machina” was my favorite movie of 2015. This year the team behind “Ex Machina “took home the award for visual effects. Although I certainly wanted to believe this film would take at least one award home, I never would have guess that it would be in special effects. Their team had a lot of competition in this area going against “Mad Max,” “Star Wars,” “The Revenant,” and “The Martian,” but the movie was so well done it was well deserved.
Every year essentially one team wins the Oscars by taking home the most awards. This year as expected, that winner was “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Of their 10 nominations “Mad Max” took five of them. Coming in second place is “The Revenant.” This team was nominated for 12 awards, and by the end of the night took three.
Leading up to the Oscars everyone watched these two movies as the biggest players in this year”s ceremony. They both held large amounts of nominations and were excellent films in all their elements. When their teams stepped onto the red carpet and took that stage, “The Revenant” was dominated by “Mad Max,” making this year”s winner: “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
Kevin Douglas Neighbors can be reached at [email protected]