10 Movie Trends That Have Been Killing Cinema For Longer That You Think

6. Oscars Are All About Money

The 'Modern' Problem: 2010 was one of the strongest years we've had for movies in recent memory and the Oscar Nominations for Best Picture really reflected that; The Social Network, Inception, True Grit, Toy Story 3 and Black Swan were all in running. And yet it was The King's Speech, a competent but rather uncreative entrant, that took home the golden baldie. Was it the usual case of Academy prudishness? Well, to some degree probably, but as is always the case with the Oscars what really got Tom Hooper's movie the gong was the money invested in it. There's already speculation beginning for this year's awards and Richard Linklater's Boyhood keeps popping up, with the major reason it won't stand a chance not being quality (it's the best film of the year so far), but that it doesn't have a big enough studio behind it. It's just one of those things; for all its focus on the movies, like anything else the annual awards are all about money. The chances of a film winning hinge on its Oscar-specific marketing campaign. But Actually: It's true, the winners are based on the money sunk into them (or in the Golden Globes' case, how many big stars you can get to your ceremony), but that's nothing new. Politics have been present in the industry from the start, with movies twisted with words to make them seem more awards friendly; look at All the Kings Men, which director-producer-writer Robert Rossen intended to be a simple drama but was bolstered up to 'important' movie.