Another Winner Will Walk Our Red Carpet on Oscar Night

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Coordinator

Only nine days until BMFI celebrates the 83rd Academy Awards with its third annual Oscar Party! on Sunday, February 27. Guests will watch a big-screen simulcast of the Oscars and enjoy a gourmet buffet dinner, drinks, cash bar, and silent auction. Tickets are going fast! Have you bought your ticket?

Last week we announced a contest to win two tickets to our Oscar Party! Thirty-one contestants made their cases for the award category that they'd most like to see added to the ceremony. All of the entries were creative and entertaining. But, like the Best Picture Oscar, only one can take home the prize: Lawrence, you've won two tickets to BMFI's Oscar Party! The winning award category: Best Movie We Forgot to Nominate a Decade Ago.

The three runners up were Brenda McFadden (Best Break-Out Role), Miranda (Best Low-Budget Picture), and Rhianna Shaheen (Best Meryl Streep Performance of the Year). Runners up will receive two free passes to BMFI! Read the winning entries below and the rest of the entries in the comments here.

The Winner:
Lawrence for Best Movie We Forgot to Nominate a Decade Ago
What do movies like Metropolis, Scarface, King Kong (1933 version), Modern Times, Sullivan’s Travels, The African Queen, The Searchers, Some Like it Hot, Psycho, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Wild Bunch, The Empire Strikes Back, and Blade Runner all have in common? They would arguably be considered classic and/or great movies that were never recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with a nomination for Best Picture. This award has been created to correct such injustices. This award for the “Best Movie We Forgot to Nominate a Decade Ago” goes to the movie that 10 years ago should have been recognized with a Best Picture award nomination (or win) but received neither. This film has stood the test of time, and has continued to receive critical and popular acclaim, and finally deserves to be recognized. Partly to avoid this omission, the Academy has now expanded the number of nominees for Best Picture from five to ten films, so it will be harder to find a winning picture starting in 2019 (although Star Trek stands a chance). The award considers films released 10 years ago, so that the 2010 Academy Award would go to a film released in 2000. My proposed six nominees (I had trouble whittling it down to five) for the 2010 award are: Almost Famous, Billy Elliot, Cast Away, Memento, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Requiem for a Dream, although we would have to go through the formal nominee selection process (and only have five) to be fair.


The Runners Up:
Rhianna Shaheen for Best Meryl Streep Performance of the Year: 
Obviouslyyy the Academy should give Meryl Streep her own category. How about Best Meryl Streep Performance of the Year…Yes/Yes? Let’s just face it; this woman should just get an award for simply EXISTING! First of all, her perfection on screen can make any so-so movie absolutely fabulous. Mamma Mia anyone? Secondly, what's an Oscar season without Meryl's magic? I mean really it feels a little empty this year. And lastly for having received an astounding total of 16 nominations over the course of her 34 year career the MOST deserving actress in Hollywood has only won TWICE!!! TWICE?? HOW DOES THIS EVEN HAPPEN? With her own category all can be forgiven, Academy. No worries! ☺
For your consideration:
Rhianna Shaheen

Miranda for Best Low-Budget Picture:
I’d like to see an award for Best Low-Budget Picture. Maybe use $5 million as a cut-off. A few of my favorites this year were Blue Valentine, Fish Tank, Tiny Furniture & Please Give, none of which cost more than $3 million and Tiny Furniture cost just $45,000! Compare that to the Oscar front runners - The King’s Speech at $15 million, True Grit at $38 million and Social Network at $40 million. Consider that ALL Academy members vote to nominate the ten Best Picture candidates and the production designers, costumers, cinematographers and sound designers probably have a lesser appreciation for low and micro-budget films, which by necessity have more technical limitations.

Brenda McFadden for Best Break-Out Role:
I would like to see a category for Best Break-Out Role--something like the Grammy for Best New Artist, though it would not necessarily have to be a brand new actor--just an actor or actress who has not had a Stand-Out performance in the past. It could be a young, new actor or it could even be a veteran who has always been cast in small roles or bad movies. This award is often stolen by a Best Supporting Actress nominee, sometimes leaving the true BSA without her Oscar. For instance, this year Hailee S. in True Grit would be one of the Break-Out (or Stand-Out or "Best Role") nominees (and in my opinion the Winner). Plus I like the idea of a category that includes male and female actors. Yes, we need to have an Oscar for "Best Role"!

Thanks for competing, everyone!