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One solution, of course, is to forego awards season in its entirety. But why would we? First of all, it’s fun. Second, everyone else does it! There are yearly prizes for best albums, best books, and best journalistic pieces. All of these are as subjective and arbitrary as the Academy Awards. The truth is, it is in our human nature to enjoy competition and to crown victors. And this type of competition and award-giving is actually useful in other ways for reasons I will get to later.

Another reason the Oscars engender so much criticism, beyond their high stature, is the emotions that movies generate in people. Because the medium of film is so accessible and so universal, and because the art is designed to evoke an emotional and perhaps intellectual reaction from the audience, we are all able to elucidate our feelings and opinions about a piece with greater ease than for other, less ubiquitous media.

The key, of course, is to not take it personally. The Oscars are anything but that. Trust me, I know this is hard - I am still upset about Brokeback Mountain or The Social Network losing Best Picture. But I have come to realize that some of the Academy’s choices can be so suspect, that it is almost comforting when they do not agree with your selection of what is Best. That is perhaps the easiest way to not take it personally.

Ultimately, however, the fact that the Oscars can engender such passionate opinions in so many people should be a clue to a simple but obvious fact: the Oscars matter.

Critiques About Movies or Artists They Haven’t Recognized

Before we get into why the Oscars matter, it seems pertinent to address another critique that is commonly leveled at them: their failure to crown this or that movie or artist. Citizen Kane's defeat at the hands of How Green Was My Valley or the lack of Oscars for Stanley Kubrick or Alfred Hitchcock are the stereotypical examples used.

The factual ignorance behind those complaints is truly comical. It is true: Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock never won Academy Awards for Directing. Quiz: How many competitive prizes from the top directing body in the country, the Directors Guild, did those two win combined? You guessed it: 0. More fun with quizzes: In the year that The Godfather won the Oscar for Best Picture, what movies won the top prize from the esteemed New York Film Critics Circle or the National Board of Review? Hint: It was not the Godfather. What about two years later, when the Academy gave Best Picture to The Godfather II? Nope, neither supposedly prestigious body recognized that movie as the best of the year. Indeed, the New York Film Critics never gave Francis Ford Coppola their Best Director award, nor did they give it to Orson Wells for directing Citizen Kane, going instead for John Ford, the director of How Green Was My Valley.

Let me spell it out again, then: awarding art is hopelessly subjective. To expect perfect acumen regarding the historical value of a movie is unrealistic. And the Oscars are supposed to have spotless track records where others have failed? Simply because the Academy was the first to come up with the idea of awarding movies?

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