The “film that saved cinema” seriously gets just one Academy Award? Top Gun: Maverick was absolutely robbed at the 2023 Oscars as the “cinema-saving” film received just one win, even though it was nominated in six categories.
When Steven Spielberg says that your film “saved Hollywood’s ass” and it “might have saved theatrical distribution” but your film only get one Academy Award from the very people you “saved”, you know there’s a major problem in how the Academy Awards are being selected and voted.
To be fair to the actual award show, I’m more annoyed with how little acknowledgement and attention Top: Gun Maverick got from the Oscars nomination process as the movie was shunned from major categories, such as Lead Actor (Tom Cruise as Pete Mitchell/Maverick), Best Director (Joesph Kosinski), Best Supporting Actor (Miles Teller as Bradley Bradshaw/Rooster), Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score.
Remember, these were all the categories that Top Gun: Maverick WASN’T EVEN NOMINATED FOR!
As for the categories Top Gun: Maverick was nominated but lost, they were Best Picture (lost to Everything Everywhere All At Once), Best Original Song (lost to “Naatu Naatu” from RRR), Best Adapted Screenplay (lost to Women Talking), Best Visual Effects (lost to Avatar: Way of Water), and Best Film Editing (lost to Everything Everywhere All At Once).
So, just to recap, Top Gun: Maverick, the second highest grossing film of the year at $1.493B, highest grossing domestic movie of the year at $718M, the highest rated Rotten Tomatoes movie of the year with both critics and audiences with 96% certified fresh critics score and 99% audience score, respectively, the highest rated IMDb movie of the year with an aggregate score of 8.3/10 (with over 150k 10/10 reviews), the Saturn Award winner of the Best Action-Adventure film of 2022 (highest award Top Gun: Maverick could win), won just one (Best Achievement In Sound) of the 17 or so major Oscar categories.
(Paramount Pictures-Top Gun: Maverick-NEW Official Trailer)
I really don’t have to go on as to why the Oscars and nearly every other Oscar-like show is broken, do I?
Alright, I will as I’m also going to point out that Top Gun: Maverick, which instantly became one of the classic movies of all-time, was beaten by films that grossed less than $5M dollars at the box office, Oscar-bait movies, and films that had extremely limited showings in the US. Or, in other words, films that nobody watched/only watched once the Oscar nominations were announced.
Now, I don’t want this article to sound like I’m saying only US-based films can win at the Academy Awards as that’s not only stupid to think, but also tremendously limits the creative freedom and talent of the millions of non-US filmmakers.
Rather, what I’m saying is that films who have broad appeal, admiration, and cultural impact (high critical reviews, good box office numbers, meet certain cultural criteria) should only be in contention for the Academy Awards as such a move would both reflect the interests of the audiences (who these films are made for) and ensure these award shows are not hijacked by crony producers and voters.
So, for example, in an ideal world, films like Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: Way of Water, Elvis, The Batman, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, All Quiet On The Western Front would be the overwhelming favorites and recipients of most of the award categories, while films like The Banshees Of Inisherin and The Fablemans would be outside shots and scraping for the smaller awards.
Movies like Tar, To Leslie, The Triangle of Sadness, and Women Talking wouldn’t have even been within 100 ft. of the nomination process. Sorry, filmmakers who worked on these films, but it’s that’s how it has to be.
Obviously, some people are going to say, “your model and criteria would only favor the big Hollywood blockbusters, box office darlings, and would step on the indie films”, which would be both right and wrong. It’s true that my model of judging would favor these bigger, more popular movies as they are MORE POPULAR!
(A24-Everything Everywhere All At Once-Official Trailer)
Movie shouldn’t be about pleasing the nichest of niche audiences (i.e.: critics and Hollywooder voters), but rather making films that critics, audiences, and filmmakers will all enjoy. Please tell me if I’m crazy for suggesting such a thing.
Reversely, you’d be wrong to say that as my judging model wouldn’t blatantly favor a Hollywood blockbuster or box office darling as The Academy Awards, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, etc. voters have done these last 30 or so years with small, Oscar-bait films.
Huge-budgeted films ($50M<) like The Batman, Top: Gun Maverick, Avatar: Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Elvis would all be favorites in my version of the Academy Awards because THEY ARE GREAT MOVIES MOST PEOPLE ENJOYED, while small-budgeted films ($50M>) and/or foreign films like Everything Everywhere All At Once, Parasite (2020 Best Picture Winner), 12 Years A Slave (2013 Best Picture Winner), and The King’s Speech (2010 Best Picture Winner) would all be favorites it too because THEY ARE GREAT MOVIES MOST PEOPLE ENJOYED.
Being a critical/Hollywood darling movie (ex: The Fabelmans, Women Talking, Tar, Triangle of Sadness, etc.) shouldn’t automatically get you a nomination for the Academy Awards if either the audience doesn’t like your film, doesn’t want to see your film, or has never heard of your film.
Plus, just making a $300M budgeted action movie filled with boring CGI, stupid nostalgic references, little plot, zero-character development, and huge practical effects to cash grab a fanbase (i.e.: all Marvel movies in the past three years) would also be excluded from my Academy Award nomination process.
(Warner Bros. Pictures-The Batman-Main Trailer)
For both examples, such logic goes against the very reason why filmmaking and entertainment exists!
Anyway, I’ve ranted about these Academy Awards enough for one day. At least in my humble opinion, Top Gun: Maverick was the Best Picture of 2023.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Paramount Pictures) (Top Gun: Maverick | NEW Official Trailer (2022 Movie) – Tom Cruise – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (Paramount Pictures) (Top Gun: Maverick | NEW Official Trailer (2022 Movie) – Tom Cruise – YouTube)
In Text Image 2: (A24) (Everything Everywhere All At Once | Official Trailer HD | A24 – YouTube)
In Text Image 3: (Warner Bros. Pictures) (THE BATMAN – Main Trailer – YouTube)
