Oscar MythBusting: The Contemporary Picture

Hang around any Oscar site or Oscar board and you'll hear that of the five best picture slots each year there's certain "slots" up for grab; a blockbuster slot. a comedy slot. .a contemporary or non-period film slot.... as if the Academy members have quotas to fulfill. How did this meme come into being and is it true? Let's travel back in time and look at "contemporary" nominees --meaning films about the here and now... or films about the very recent past.

2000-2004
In the past five years your contemporary nominees have been: Erin Brockovich, Traffic, In the Bedroom, Mystic River, Lost in Translation, Million Dollar Baby*, and Sidewaysor 28% of the best picture nominees. A little more than 1 film out of 5. But not much. So the meme appears to be true.

1990-1999
The contemporary nominees were: Ghost, The Prince of Tides, Silence of the Lambs*, The Crying Game, A Few Good Men, The Fugitive, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pulp Fiction, Fargo, Jerry Maguire, Secrets & Lies, As Good As It Gets, The Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, American Beauty*, The Insider, and The Sixth Sense. That's 34% of the nominees... but there doesn't seem to be any pattern, truth be told. Some years had no modern films --1998 dominated by World War II and Queen Elizabeth comes to mind. Others were heavily weighted toward current stories, like 1996. Perhaps the reason that we think of a "slot" is that it's hard to categorize these films. What, really, do all of these films have in common? There are comedies, rebellious indies, blockbuster hits, upscale dramas, and true stories. It's all over the place.

1980-1989
The nominees: Ordinary People*, Atlantic City, On Golden Pond, E.T., Missing, Tootsie, The Verdict, The Big Chill, Tender Mercies, Terms of Endearment*, The Killing Fields, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Witness, Prizzi's Honor, Children of a Lesser God, Hannah and Her Sisters, Broadcast News, Fatal Attraction, Moonstruck, The Accidental Tourist, Rainman*, Working Girl, and Field of Dreams46% of everything nominated in the 80s, or at least 2 out of 5 of the nominees. The number keeps climbing.

1970-1979
Airport, Five Easy Pieces, Love Story, M*A*S*H, The French Connection, Deliverance, The Exorcist, A Touch of Class, The Conversation, Lenny, The Towering Inferno, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Nashville, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest*, All the Presidents Men, Network, Rocky*, Taxi Driver, Annie Hall*, The Goodbye Girl, The Turning Point, Coming Home, The Deer Hunter*, Heaven Can Wait, An Unmarried Woman, All That Jazz, Apocalypse Now, Breaking Away, Kramer Vs. Kramer* and Norma Rae form 62% of the nominees in the 70s --three out of five best pictures in any given year.

I don't have the strength to go back any further (must keep watching the Tour de France and then sleep!) I wonder if it cycles back to mostly period pieces again? I wonder if the ratios are reflective of the actual movie output? Are there just more period piece eye-candy movies now than there were in the 80s? The famed 'one spot of five' for contemporary pictures may be a fleeting trend. Fans of modern pictures that speak to where we are right now might rejoice.