Topic: Harry Potter Gets Snubbed By The Oscars?

[Neon Genesis]

So how is it that Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy wins 17 Oscar nominations, the Star Wars movies won eight (even though they're mediocre sci-fi at best) yet the most successful film franchise doesn't win a single Oscar in the span of the entire series?  Even if you didn't think Deathly Hallows was as good storywise as the other movies, surely it should have gotten at least Best Special Effects or Alan Rickman should have won Best Supporting Actor for Severus Snape.  Yet some French black and white silent film I've never even heard of before the Oscars wins Best Picture? http://www.eonline.com/redcarpet/2012/oscars/news/thanks-academy-oscars-make-harry-potter-most-snubbed-franchise-of-all-time/297110

Harry Potter just set another record, and for once, the boy wizard has the Academy to thank.

With Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2's three losses last night, the world's most successful movie franchise of all-time became the most-snubbed top-grossing franchise of all-time.

Read it and weep:

Of Hollywood's five biggest film series (per BoxOfficeMojo.com stats), the now-concluded Potter franchise is the only one to never, ever win at least won Academy Award.

George Lucas' Stars Wars movies won eight competitive Oscars. The James Bond adventures have picked up two. The Batman iterations to date own three wins, including a Best Supporting Actor trophy for Heath Ledger. The Shrek franchise distinguished itself from the get-go with the inaugural win in the Animated Feature category.

PHOTOS: Top 10 Harry Potter Villains

And then at No. 1 there's Harry Potter: 12 nominations, zero wins.

Early on, it seemed as if the franchise might have better luck at the 2012 Oscars. And even after Deathly Hallows Part 2's Best Picture buzz fizzled, and talk of an Alan Rickman Best Supporting Actor nod died, the series picked up as many nominations as it ever had.

Deathly Hallows Part 2's best chance for a game-changing win arguably was in Art Direction, a category where the film had had success at the guild-awards level. But in the end it was swept aside in Hugo's sweep of the tech awards, losing there and also in Visual Effects. It likewise went down to defeat in Best Makeup, losing to The Iron Lady.

Read more: http://www.eonline.com/redcarpet/2012/oscars/news/thanks-academy-oscars-make-harry-potter-most-snubbed-franchise-of-all-time/297110#ixzz1niFKTLOi

[David E.]

*backs out of the thread slowly.*

[Eternally Learning]

I'd get angry, but I've long ago stopped caring about the Oscars as it's all a bunch of political BS.  For every win that means something, there's an easy dozen that can kiss my ass.

[gcason]

The Oscars show is the world's largest group masturbation.

[Halleyscomet/Wakefield]

The Oscars are a popularity contest among the citizens of Hollywood. It's not about what movies are the "best" or the most successful, but about the ones the people in Hollywood like the most, or want people to think they like the most. Unless you happen to share the taste of the people who are going the voting, you're going to be mystified by the results. It would be absurd for the Twilight series to sweep the Hugo Awards despite the books and movies being very successful and perfectly tailored to the target demographic. Many Twilight fans would therefore think the Hugos are run by idiots.

That black and white film did well because Hollywood loves pretending it's more artistic than it really is.

The LOTR trilogy got so many nominations because it had buzz and Weta Workshop was shaping up to be a major force in digital effects.

Star Wars is beloved and has been very effectively pimped with one special edition and spinoff after another.

Harry Potter has a lot of characteristics that people in Hollywood hate.

Harry Potter had too much overall storyline for the average Hollywood attention span. It had a continuous plot requiring some understanding of what happened in previous movies. Hollywood likes franchise installments to be more self contained. You don't need to watch the earlier Die Hard, Halloween or James bond movies to understand the most recent one, but Deathly Hallows is a damn poor place to start if it's your introduction to Harry Potter.

While it achieved the kind of multi-movie franchise success that most franchises only dream of, it was about kids, meaning they had to come out with the next movie before they'd really finished milking the last one. What's more, it's over, and the woman who owns the rights is wealthy enough now to not be swayed by pitches for a Wizard University storyline or a series of movies about the supporting characters. They might be able to get her to let them make a movie or two based on the Tales of Beadle the Bard, but they won't get to do it using Harry Potter as the title character unless they have the actor narrating the stories as he reads them to his kids.

No, Hollywood has to suck up and accept the fact that Harry Potter won't result in any new material for a good decade at best, no matter how many ideas the producers have. It's not as visually glitzy to justify the kind of special effects face lifts that have allowed Star Wars to have so many special editions. Eventually they might get the approval for a TV series that follows the books, or a remake of the first seven books. Beadle the Bard on TV or film is their best bet, but the connection to the overall franchise might not be strong enough to get the money men to finance a tent pole.

Some day JK will pass away. Only then will we see the Star Wars style gold rush to pimp Harry Potter, but only then if the series achieves the kind of long term cultural traction that Narnia and LOTR have.

[Halleyscomet/Wakefield]

Note: I am a Harry Potter fan. I got my copy of Deathly Hallows at midnight the night it was released. I've listened to both the American and British versions of the audio books. I'll probably listen to them again in the next year or two.

[wastrel]

Note: I am a Harry Potter fan. I got my copy of Deathly Hallows at midnight the night it was released. I've listened to both the American and British versions of the audio books. I'll probably listen to them again in the next year or two.

Did you find you preferred Jim Dale or Stephen Fry?

I've listened to both versions of all seven books, and I like Jim Dale's range of characters a bit more, but I still prefer Fry overall.

[Neon Genesis]

The Oscars are a popularity contest among the citizens of Hollywood. It's not about what movies are the "best" or the most successful, but about the ones the people in Hollywood like the most, or want people to think they like the most. Unless you happen to share the taste of the people who are going the voting, you're going to be mystified by the results. It would be absurd for the Twilight series to sweep the Hugo Awards despite the books and movies being very successful and perfectly tailored to the target demographic. Many Twilight fans would therefore think the Hugos are run by idiots.

The LOTR movies also required you to watch them in order to understand the plot but they still won tons of Oscars anyway.  Comparing Harry Potter to Twilight is a poor analogy.  Twilight is only popular among tween girls and their moms but Harry Potter was a literary phenomenon around the world among readers of all ages and genders and got kids who would have never picked up a book in their lives otherwise to actually read something.  Deathly Hallows also won Best Special Effects at the BAFTA Awards which is basically the British version of the Oscars.  I don't think anyone expects Harry Potter to win something as glorious as best movie or best screenplay but Alan Rickman at the least should have gotten Best Supporting Actor and Deathly Hallows won Best Visuals in the BAFTA awards.  But even putting Deathly Hallows aside, it's bizarre that the world's most popular film franchise couldn't win a single award in the U.S.'s biggest popularity contest throughout the entire span of the series but Shrek can?

[Eternally Learning]

The Oscars are a popularity contest among the citizens of Hollywood. It's not about what movies are the "best" or the most successful, but about the ones the people in Hollywood like the most, or want people to think they like the most. Unless you happen to share the taste of the people who are going the voting, you're going to be mystified by the results. It would be absurd for the Twilight series to sweep the Hugo Awards despite the books and movies being very successful and perfectly tailored to the target demographic. Many Twilight fans would therefore think the Hugos are run by idiots.

The LOTR movies also required you to watch them in order to understand the plot but they still won tons of Oscars anyway.  Comparing Harry Potter to Twilight is a poor analogy.  Twilight is only popular among tween girls and their moms but Harry Potter was a literary phenomenon around the world among readers of all ages and genders and got kids who would have never picked up a book in their lives otherwise to actually read something.  Deathly Hallows also won Best Special Effects at the BAFTA Awards which is basically the British version of the Oscars.  I don't think anyone expects Harry Potter to win something as glorious as best movie or best screenplay but Alan Rickman at the least should have gotten Best Supporting Actor and Deathly Hallows won Best Visuals in the BAFTA awards.  But even putting Deathly Hallows aside, it's bizarre that the world's most popular film franchise couldn't win a single award in the U.S.'s biggest popularity contest throughout the entire span of the series but Shrek can?

I agree with everything you just said.  How does that happen?

[David E.]

Note: I am a Harry Potter fan. I got my copy of Deathly Hallows at midnight the night it was released. I've listened to both the American and British versions of the audio books. I'll probably listen to them again in the next year or two.

Dale is an amazing voice actor.

[Neon Genesis]

I agree with everything you just said.  How does that happen?

Daniel Radcliffe blames it on intellectual snobbery towards children's movies: http://todayentertainment.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/07/10344833-daniel-radcliffe-miffed-about-harry-potter-oscar-snub

..

There's no shortage of magic in the "Harry Potter" films, but there's one thing the beloved boy wizard could never conjure: Oscar love.

Although the franchise has racked up a total of 12 nominations, it hasn't won a single statuette. Even worse, it's never been recognized in any of the artistic categories, including Best Picture.

Star Daniel Radcliffe isn't a happy camper when it comes to the snub, and he's now giving people a piece of his mind...

He also notes, "There's a certain amount of snobbery. It's kind of disheartening. I never thought I'd care. But it would've been nice to have some recognition, just for the hours put in."

[superdave]

I agree with the general sentiment, but I just am not that worked up about it.

[PANTS!]

Dale is an amazing voice actor.

Go and watch "Pushing Dasies"

Then come back and thank me.

[Hanes]

This just proves that JK Rowling isn't as good a writer as George Lucas.

[amysrevenge]

But even putting Deathly Hallows aside, it's bizarre that the world's most popular film franchise couldn't win a single award in the U.S.'s biggest popularity contest throughout the entire span of the series but Shrek can?

Looking at it, I see the HP movies on the low end of average, but not the very bottom, out of the top grossing movies.

And it looks to me like Pirates of the Caribbean is more popular but about equally poorly represented at the Oscars (with one win, but fewer nominations).

Worldwide highest-grossing films
1 Avatar $2,782,275,172 2009 3 Oscars, 9 Nominations
2 Titanic $1,843,201,268 1997 11 Oscars, 14 Nominations
3 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 $1,328,111,219 2011 0 Oscars, 3 Nominations
4 Transformers: Dark of the Moon $1,123,746,996 2011 0 Oscars, 3 Nominations
5 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King $1,119,929,521 2003 11 Oscars, 11 Nominations
6 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest $1,066,179,725 2006 1 Oscar, 4 Nominations
7 Toy Story 3 $1,063,171,911 2010 2 Oscars, 5 Nominations
8 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides $1,043,871,802 2011 0 Oscars, 0 Nominations
9 Alice in Wonderland $1,024,299,904 2010 2 Oscars, 3 Nominations
10 Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace  $1,010,898,386 1999 0 Oscars, 3 Nominations
11 The Dark Knight $1,001,921,825 2008 2 Oscars, 8 Nominations
12 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone $974,755,371 2001 0 Oscars, 3 Nominations
13 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End $963,420,425 2007 0 Oscars, 2 Nominations
14 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 $956,399,711 2010 0 Oscars, 2 Nominations
15 The Lion King $951,583,777 1994 2 Oscars, 4 Nominations