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The term "Oscar-bait" is one that has been thrown around for decades when awards season rolls around.
Traditionally, it was used to describe a film that was made with the express purpose of winning awards but with little thought for its lasting legacy beyond that. These films tended to be relatively safe true story period pieces or perhaps inspirational tales about an underdog overcoming terrible odds, and were generally defined by solid but unremarkable filmmaking and sentimental scripts that tended towards the formulaic.
In other words, they were in-the-moment crowd-pleasers that pulled on the heartstrings but did little to truly shake up the film world.
In recent years, however, the old criteria for what was considered an "Oscars film" has begun to shift, and the sorts of movies described above have largely been absent from the, admittedly, still imperfect best picture line-ups. Recent trends point to an Academy that is now more inclined towards auteur-driven cinema, international features and even films belonging to once awards-resistant genres like horror – just look at the monumental, record-breaking success of Sinners in today's nominations for one example of the latter.
In keeping with these changes, this year's list of 10 films up for best picture includes plenty of nominees that deserve to be there – including Joachim Trier's incredibly moving family drama Sentimental Value and Paul Thomas Anderson's thrilling masterpiece One Battle After Another.
And then, there's F1.
View Green Video on the source websiteThe film – which is directed by Top Gun: Maverick's Joseph Kosinski and stars Brad Pitt – was made in conjunction with the governing body of the titular sport, and that is very much apparent while watching: it plays as a branding exercise designed to increase the popularity of Formula One, rather than any sort of spectacular cinematic achievement. If nothing else, it must surely break the record for the highest amount of product placements in an Oscar-nominated movie.
And while it might be unfair to disregard F1 outright – the racing scenes are filmed well, and the nominations in the editing and sound categories are perhaps fair enough – it seems bizarre to recognise a film which such a formulaic approach to storytelling as one of the year's best, especially when so many more audacious and interesting films have been left completely empty-handed (for example, Mona Fastvold's The Testament of Ann Lee, Lynne Ramsay's Die My Love, and Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice).
In our three-star review of the film ahead of it's release in the summer, we described it as "two-dimensional" and said of Pitt's central character: "There isn’t a great deal of depth to Sonny, a character forever teetering on the precipice of cliché." And cliché is exactly the word that comes to mind for just about the entirety of F1's bloated and predictable runtime: it's an empty spectacle, a well-crafted corporate exercise masquerading as a film. Frankly, it's more suited for an Advertising Award than an Academy Award.
Of course, it's always worth mentioning that, as easy as it is to get swept up in – and as much fun as it can be to observe and debate – awards season has always fundamentally been a rather silly pursuit. In reality, it means little more than an excuse for Hollywood types to throw a bunch of glamorous parties and congratulate themselves, even if they do occasionally recognise some pretty deserving films in the process. So perhaps its a fool's errand to get too up in arms about any particular inclusions or omissions: a great film is a great film, and one's enjoyment of it or lack thereof needn't be dictated by how many accolades it is up for.
But it's still interesting to keep track of these trends, and perhaps F1's inclusion points towards a new type of Oscar-bait: the populist choice. With fears that the ceremony is no longer as relevant as it once was – and viewing figures dwindling – there seems to be a recent push to recognise at least one overtly commercial movie alongside the more artistic fare every year (at risk of inviting the wrath of its passionate fanbase, I'd put last year's inclusion of Wicked in the same category.)
And so, perhaps in this new era of the Oscars we're going to have to get use to seeing some pretty unremarkable – but undeniably high-grossing – films in the best picture line-up, often at the expense of more groundbreaking movies.
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