Awards Season by the Numbers: A Really Boring Title for a Semi-Interesting Subject

So, as I’ve mentioned, I love award shows. I just do. That said, I have noticed that it seems like the same movies are just mentioned over and over and over again at awards shows. The logical conclusion here is that is because those are the good movies or performances, right? You hear about them and they’re nominated because they’re the best of the best. Everyone can’t be the best, so it makes sense for some of them to be mentioned repeatedly.

That led me to question whether or not that was actually true. Aside from the problem that “best” is purely qualitative, I wanted to look at which films were nominated, compared across multiple award shows. How many movies are nominated, and how many movies could be nominated? I looked at multiple award shows, factoring in how many movies could be nominated if each movie was only able to receive one nomination. That’s it. I wasn’t looking for other trends, like the lack of female directors or writers nominated, or the lack of diversity. I just wanted to know, how many movies are getting attention, versus how many performances are being missed.

I looked at the Oscars, the Globes, and the SAGAs. I counted each potential nomination as a “slot,” meaning if there are 10 nominations given to the best picture category, there are 10 slots that could theoretically be filled by 10 different movies. In Best Picture, there are 10 slots and 10 different movies. In the Best Actor category there would be 5 slots, but not necessarily 5 different movies. I wanted to know if the same movies really were being nominated over and over again, and so this was crucial. If there could be 5 different films nominated, but only 3 films were nominated (meaning at least 1 film had multiple nominations), that probably means that performances were being missed in other films.

So, here’s the math.

SAG AWARDS

• Between the Lead Actor, Lead Actress, Lead Supporting Actor, Lead Supporting Actress, and Best Ensemble categories, there was the potential for 25 movies to be nominated, but only 15 were.
  • Between best actor and best actress, there were 10 potential nominations, and 10 different films nominated.
  • Between Lead Actor and Lead Supporting Actor, there were 10 potential nominations, and 9 movies nominated (Three Billboards had two nominations in Lead Supporting Actor
  • Between Lead Actress and Lead Supporting Actress, there were 10 slots, but only 8 movies were nominated (I, Tonya and Lady Bird had nominations in each category).
  • All films nominated for Best Ensemble had at least one nomination in one of the actor/actress categories
  • There were 25 potential movie nominations, but because of some movies receiving multiple nominations, only 15 films were mentioned.
• In the TV categories, there were 15 potential nominations in all of the Drama TV series categories, with only 8 shows being nominated
• In the Comedy TV categories, there were 15 slots, with only 9 shows being nominated
• In the TV Movie or Miniseries categories, there was the potential for 10 shows to be nominated, but only 6 shows were nominated
  • The Male Actor had the potential for 5 nominations, and 5 different shows were nominated.
  • The Female Actress had the potential for 5 nominations, but only 2 shows were nominated.
• Fun Tidbits
  • The Big Sick, and Mudbound were nominated for Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture. Neither of these received Best Picture Oscar or Globe nominations

 GLOBES

• Between all Actor/Actress categories, there was the potential for 30 films to be nominated, but only 20 films were.
  • Between all Actress categories, there were 15 slots, but only 12 films were nominated.
  • Between all Actor categories, there were 15 slots, with 13 films nominated
• Between all of the (major) film categories covered on the Golden Globes, there was the potential for 50 films to be nominated, but only 22 were.
  • Best Screenplay and Best Director could have yielded 10 films being nominated, but only 7 were.
    • Factor in Screenplay, Director, and both Best Picture categories and there were 20 slots, but only 12 nominations
  • Of the 15 slots for Best Ensemble/TV Show, 12 of the nominations are NOT available on basic cable, and 7 shows are ONLY available online
    • Between all of the TV categories, there were 55 potential shows to be nominated, but only 32 were.
    • There were 20 slots in the Actress categories, with only 15 shows being nominated
    • There were 20 slots in the Actor categories, with 19 shows being nominated
    • Combining the Actor and Actress categories, there were 40 potential nominations, but only 30 shows were nominated
  • Fun tidbits
    • Aaron Sorkin’s Molly’s Game screenplay is the only screenplay nomination to not also receives a best pic nomination
    • Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World was the only film nominated for best director that was not also nominated for best picture

OSCARS

• Between Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Director, 34 different films could have been nominated. 14 were.
  • Between Production Design, Cinematography, Costume Design, and Makeup and Styling there were 18 potential nominations, but only 9 films were nominated.
  • Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Film Editing combine for 15 potential nominations, with only 6 movies being nominated.
    • Film Editing and Visual Effects offer 10 potential nominations, and 10 movies were in fact nominated.
  • Between the 16 categories I just mentioned, only 27 movies were nominated, out of a potential 82 nominations.
  • Fun tidbits
    • Of the 5 films nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, only 1 is also nominated for Best Picture.
      • Of the 5 films nominated for Best Original Screenplay, only 1 is NOT also nominated for Best Picture
        • This means that of the 9 nominations for Best Picture, 4 of those did not meet the Best Screenplay standard.
          • All of the films nominated for Best Director are also nominated for Best Picture
        • 14 of the 27 movies nominated were released between November and December.
        • Logan is the first superhero (that I know of) to receive a Best Adapted Screenplay nod.
        • I like to look at some of the Editing, Effects and Cinematography-related categories because I feel like that’s the place where movies that people actually watched but that otherwise aren’t “artsy” enough to receive Oscar nods, could find their place. For example, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 is not otherwise the typical Oscar film, but it does rank in a Visual Effects category.
          • The highest-grossing movies included Star Wars, Beauty and the Beast, The Fate of the Furious, Despicable Me 3, Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor Ragnarok, Wonder Woman, and Pirates of the Caribbean
            • None of these received “primary” Oscar nods (such as Best Director). Star Wars received nods in Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. Beauty and the Beast received Production Design and Costume Design nods. Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars (in addition to Kong: Skull Island, Blade Runner 2049 and War for the Planet of the Apes) were nominated for Visual Effects
          • There is no real category for action sequences in the Academy Awards. There is no stunt category or choreography category, or otherwise action-ensemble category. This is odd when you consider the number of action movies there are. Also, this could be a helpful tool the Academy uses to 1) encourage people to watch, since this is a category everyday people would probably have a say in 2) encourage safe practices amongst stunt crews by rewarding those crews that do so.
            • The SAG Awards do have this category

OVERALL COMPARISONS

• James Franco from The Disaster Artist was included in the Best Actor (Drama) category for both the Globes and the SAGAs, but not the Oscars. Instead, Daniel Kaluuya from Get Out was nominated in its place for the Oscars. Otherwise, across all three award shows the remaining 4 nomination slots were filled by the same 4 movies.
  • Comparing films nominated for Best Supporting Actor across all 3 award shows, there were 5 movies nominated, out of a potential 15. Essentially, there was debate about whether to nominate Steve Carell for Battle of the Sexes or Christopher Plummer for All the Money in the World.
• Looking at the Best Actress category is difficult, because the Globes has two categories for this, instead of 1. Even with that there are 20 slots, and 8 movies nominated.
  • Supporting Actress has 15 potential nominations across all 3 shows, but only 7 movies were nominated. The SAGAs and the Globes included Hong Chau in Downsizing, while the Oscars included Lesley Manville in Phantom Thread. The Globes and Oscars included Octavia Spencer in the Shape of Water, while the SAGAs chose Holly Hunter in The Big Sick.
• Best Picture (or Best Ensemble)
  • There were 2 discrepancies in comparing the Globes to the Oscars. The Greatest Showman and The Disaster Artist both were acknowledged by the Globes, while the Academy chose Darkest Hour and Phantom Thread in their place. 19 potential nominations, 12 movies nominated.
  • Of the 5 Outstanding Performance by a Cast nomination slots in the SAGAs, 3 movies were also nominated in the same category in the other shows, while The Big Sick and Mudbound were exclusive to the SAGAs.
• Best Director (not included in the SAG Awards…)
  • 10 potential nominations, 8 actual nominations.
    • Academy stuck with Phantom Thread and Get Out, while the Globes went with 3 Billboards and All the Money in the World
  • Best Screenplay
    • This is a difficult comparison because the Globes only has 1 category, and the Academy Awards have the Adapted and Original categories. The Post is included in the Globes nominations, but it is the only one not also seen in the Academy nominations. Molly’s Game is the only Globes nomination that would qualify for the Adapted Screenplay category – the other three nominations fall in the Original Screenplay category

It’s surprisingly difficult to determine how many movies are released each year, especially factoring in online releases and what types of films, etc. Cinema Blend puts out a list of movies released, and according to it, there were (roughly) 200 films released in 2017. Only 13.5% of them received an Oscar nod.

Even when you factor in variances between all three award shows, the similarities between at least two of them are high. Essentially, yes, all of the same movies are being nominated over and over and over. Which does beg the question of why it’s necessary to have multiple award shows. I personally found the TV nominations to be the most annoying, mostly because it would be expensive to watch all of them (between the cost of streaming services and cable charges).

So, it’s a fair assessment that performances are being missed. What were some of your favorites? There’s the fan favorites like Wonder Woman, which I wish would’ve received an Oscar nod. I LOVED The Greatest Showman, and sincerely wish that had been mentioned as well. There were several big-ticket movie releases, such as Jumanji, Atomic Blonde, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, or Justice League which could have benefited from having stunt coordination categories. I personally also wish there was a comedy category in the Academy Awards. I don’t even like comedies, but it doesn’t feel like they should be excluded on that alone – good comedies warrant their own appreciation in the way that good horror films do. There’s also films like Everything, Everything which could benefit from a young-adult type of category (since the Academy refuses to include these things in general).

Anyway, there’s all kinds of other fun facts out there about the awards (including the lack of diversity in nominations), but in terms of overall numbers this is what I came up with. Let me know if any of your favorites were/were not nominated! 🙂 Happy Oscars Day! 🙂