﻿Hey guys, I’m Dev,
and I’m Andrew,
and we’d like to thank the Academy for nominating two nerdy as hell movies for Best Picture this year:
Nerds! Nerds! Nerds! Nerds! Nerds!
Jordan Peele’s scarily accurate horror flick ‘Get Out,’
and Guillermo Del Toro’s sci-fi fairytale ‘The Shape of Water.’
You don’t see a lot of Best Picture nominations for sci-fi and horror movies,
and wins are basically nonexistent.
But either one of these films could snag the highest honor this year.
In a sea of indie dramas and dry-ass biopics,
they’re awesome examples of genre films done right.
So with the 90th Academy Awards just around the corner,
Today, we’re gonna talk about their chances, and
Why Sci-Fi and Horror Never Win Best Picture
The Oscars are decided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,
a professional organization for basically everyone working in the movie biz.
There’s about 7,000 members,
Minus one, after Harvey Weinstein got his ass expelled last year,
True, true. Goodbye.
Team Rocket's blasting off again!
Bon Voyage!
and they’ve got pretty strict guidelines on who can join,
and who can vote in the awards.
As insiders, they have a vested interest in making movies seem classy and respectable,
Bugger, bugger, bugger, buggedy, buggedy, buggedy, bleep, bleep, arse!
Balls! Balls!
so they love voting for serious dramas and long, sweeping epics.
Especially if your movie’s literally about how great Hollywood is,
it's ridiculous, although sometimes that’s just not enough.
[Humming the opening to 'La La Land.'
It's a good opening, though.
The Academy is stuck in their ways,
and a lot of members still perceive genre movies like horror and sci-fi as trashy or disposable.
It’s a miracle that a fantasy film like ‘Return of the King’ managed to win in 2004.
I was just a kid, and it excited me then.
Peter Jackson basically had to bludgeon the voters with more and more endings to make them give in.
And sci-fi and horror still haven’t had their day in the sun,
so let’s see how the odds are stacked against
The Shape of Water
Will Guillermo Del Toro’s lifelong fish fixation climax in a well-deserved Oscar?
It’s definitely a genre film, but it’s hard to pin down which.
It’s a fairy tale romance, but it’s also a sharp political allegory,
and more than anything else, it’s a good ol’ monster movie.
Del Toro did a fantastic job,
there’s one scene that’s so breathtaking I can’t even hint at what it is or I’ll ruin an amazing moment.
But it still might be a little too weird for the Academy.
After all, they’ve had a poor track record with science fiction since day one.
Here's some money, go see a Star War.
At the first Oscars in 1929, a war drama called ‘Wings’ won the top award.
It’s pretty impressive for a silent film,
and this dolly shot is spectacular,
lieterally almost every film class I've ever had has used it to teach me something.
Modern directors reference it all the time,
because it’s a decent movie,
but it’s like Michael Bay’s ‘Pearl Harbor’ compared to Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis.’
If a Mt. Rushmore for Sci-Fi cinema existed,
one, it would look awesome,
And two, ‘Metropolis’ would have its huge-ass robot face on it,
it’s one of the pillars that the whole genre is built on.
But, of course, the Academy ignored it,
and other classics,
in favor of movies that are basically film-school footnotes today.
Most early Best Picture winners don’t hold a candle to 'King Kong,'
I guess you could say they ain't got shit on him.
I don't even know how to follow that.
But it wasn’t even nominated for a single award,
not even for Willis O’Brien’s groundbreaking stop-motion effects.
They actually managed to achieve a realistic-looking ape in the freakin' '30s!
The Academy threw sci-fi movies a bone in 1938,
when they introduced the first Special Effects Award.
For a while, technical Oscars like these were the ceiling for sci-fi films,
with the odd acting nod thrown in here and there.
Well-deserved, but still no Best Picture.
Not for ‘Alien,’
not for ‘Blade Runner,.
Not even for ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’
one of my favorite sci-fi films of all time,
and the first of three Kubrick snubs we’re gonna talk about in this video.
Just what do you think you're doing, Dave? I really think I'm entitled to an answer to that question.
There were only three sci-films nominated for Best Picture before 2009:
‘A Clockwork Orange,’ which lost to ‘The French Connection,’
Well, well, well!
THE ‘Star Wars’ ...lost to ‘Annie Hall,’
and ‘E.T.’ lost to ‘Ghandi.’
Wait, THE 'Star Wars,' as in 'A New Hope,' lost to 'Annie Hall?'
A genre-defining space opera that launched a franchise that will be forever shoved down our throats for years to come,
lost to a movie about Woody Allen not being able to keep a girlfriend. Great.
Stop me before I make a complete imbecile of myself.
There's no hope there.
Don't laugh at that.
Nah, keep that in.
Back then, it was impressive enough for a genre movie to be nominated.
Today, not so much.
In 2009, the Academy expanded the number of Best Picture nominees to ten,
and since then, way more sci-fi films have been in the mix.
But with so many nominees, fans of genre movies tend to split the vote between their faves,
while the rest of the voters rally behind something like ‘Braveheart.’
And with ‘The Shape of Water’ up against a movie like ‘Get Out,’
they might just knock each other out ‘Rocky 2’ style while ‘The Post’ cleans up.
And no one wants to see that.
After all, horror movies don’t have the best track record either.
Let’s get into
Get Out
Objectively, it’s a story tailor-made for the Oscars:
A bold new director makes a huge debut with a socially conscious smash hit.
So how long has this been going on? This thannng...
Hah!
Jordan Peele could have easily walked away with Best Picture,
if he’d just made a tender coming of age story,
or a biopic of some dude who was probably your grandpa’s boss in the ‘20s.
But he chose to make a commentary that doubles as a horror satire instead,
and the Academy’s always been a bit squeamish about that genre, especially when the subject matter involves race .
They looked away when it came to classics like ‘Frankenstein,’ and ‘Dracula,’
and not even Alfred Hitchcock could coax them into the shower with ‘Psycho.’
People didn’t really start take horror films seriously until ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ in 1968,
but the Academy stayed stingy with the Best Picture nods.
Nothing for ‘The Omen, or ‘Halloween...’
Oh, and guess how many Razzie awards ‘The Shining’ was nominated for?
Two.
Guess how many Oscars?
Zero.
I'm not gonna hurt ya! I'm just gonna bash your brains in!
I'm gonna bash 'em right the heck in!
It was a weak year, and in hindsight it easily could have won,
but Kubrick only got a single Academy Award for his entire career,
for Visual Effects on ‘2001.’
Damn straight.
William Freedkin’s ‘The Exorcist’ was the first horror film nominated for Best Picture, in 1973.
Its excellence was plain on its vomit-encrusted face,
and the traditionally traditional Academy had no choice but to nominate a literally blasphemous movie.
Don't you blaspheme in here! Don't you blaspheme in here!
It took nearly twenty more years for a horror film to actually win the big one,
but only if you consider ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ horror.
You’d consider that a horror movie, right?
I would actually consider it more of a psychological thriller,
or a crime drama,
But definitely not horror?
Nah, look, don’t get me wrong,
any movie where people get their faces ripped off is pretty much horror in my book,
but sometimes the lines get blurred.
Is ‘The Sixth Sense’ a horror movie?
There are ghosts, and Donnie Wahlberg scared the shit out of me,
but then again, it was nominated for ‘Best Picture,’
so maybe the Academy doesn’t think so.
They’re very set in their ways,
but that’s not surprising when you see their demographics.
Because on top of everything else,
Oscars So Old.
In 2012, the median age of an Oscar voter was 62 years,
and only 14% were younger than 50.
It’s no wonder they never show love to genre movies,
because a huge chunk of the voters come from a time where they were considered sleazy and immature.
It took decades for technology to catch up to the serious visions of sci-fi directors,
and our country had to go through some serious shit before horror movies were seen as respectable.
We not trying to be ageist,
we’re just aware of the facts.
It’s these elder states-people of Hollywood who are determining the winners and losers every Oscar night,
and the old guard doesn’t like to leave its comfort zone.
I love the young people!
After the #OscarsSoWhite incident,
the Academy has promised to do a better job representing a younger and more diverse Hollywood,
So last year they purged some of the most decrepit voters and added 638 new members to their ranks,
including John Boyega and Marlon Wayans, funnily enough.
It was a much-needed injection of new blood,
inducting new and younger directors, writers, and actors of color,
who came up in the industry during the modern resurgence of sci-fi and horror,
and have deep affection for the genres.
That’s why this year,
‘The Shape of Water’ and ‘Get Out’ both have an excellent chance of walking away with the gold.
Logan and Blade Runner weren’t nominated for Best Picture,
I'm sad about it,
Not! Okay!
so I’m hoping that 'Get Out' has a better chance.
But if either ‘Shape of Water’ or ‘Get Out’ wins, it’ll be a huge first for Hollywood,
and proof that the Academy is finally starting to get with the times,
and giving sci-fi and horror films the respect they always deserved.