Yeahduff wrote:Eh. A movie just needs to get the attention of elite Western audiences, particularly American. Typically these will be serious American fictions, but the occassional Crouching Tiger or Beauty And The Beast really doesn't hurt the integrity of the Awards. Anytime you award the best anything, it's from a specific frame, so while an African film might be excellent to Africans and even the few Americans who've seen it, it's preclusion doesn't destroy the facade by any means.
It's not even wholly American frame, it's specifically
Hollywood frame. The whole deal with it is
Hollywood institution financed by
Hollywood money and populated with
Hollywood people, giving awards to
Hollywood films, and trying to convince people that it's actually the best of film that they can find. If the award is given outside of Hollywood, that is not to honor the film in question, but to honor the award itself.
Check out trio of European major festivals. By all means they are not perfect (specifically Cannes which has spoiled rotten in recent years) but you'll note much greater diversity. These festivals actually manage to cover majority of world film industries, and give special attention to still-developing, small industries. How can they do it, and Hollywood can't? Well if evaluating, selecting and awarding films is your profession, than you have to make sure to follow every major development in film, or else you're just doing a half-assed job.
It also has something to do with USA being famously insulated, so that any foreign bit of culture that breaks in seems more like accident than anything else. After all, it's not in Hollywood's best interest to let people know that films are being made outside Hollywood too.
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