It's the art crowd vs. the mainstream crowd in the race for Hollywood's biggest prize at the Academy Awards. The battle for Best Picture has boiled down to "The Artist," a black and white throwback to old time Hollywood, and "The Help," a mainstream phenomenon that has earned well over $100 million at the domestic box office.
This divisive battle has two aspects of the Academy crowd at odds: Those who wish to promote film as an art form, and those who bow to the tastes of the mainstream, movie-going public.
Anti-Commercial
If there is anything the art crowd in the Academy loves, it's a movie that flies in the face of commercial sensibilities. "The Artist" -- a black and white silent film starring a pair of relatively unknown French actors, Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, and directed by a Frenchman, Michel Hazanavicius -- does just that
Recent Academy history bears out the battle-lines. In 2009 the commercially challenged "The Hurt Locker," without a big star or big name director, became the lowest-grossing film ever to win Best Picture by upsetting the biggest commercial hit of all time, James Cameron's epic "Avatar." The result was hailed as an upset almost solely because of "Avatar's" massive box office numbers.
"The Help"
The mainstream crowd in the Academy has a soft spot for the movies that mainstream moviegoers love. In 1998 the mainstream got in line with the phenomenon that was "Titanic" and overcame a wave of art-lovers pushing for the tiny English indie "The Fully Monty" and the gritty cop drama "L.A Confidential." In 2003 the mainstream stuck it to the art crowd by honoring "Chicago" over art-house fave "The Pianist." And the mainstream won again in 2004 when "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" topped the beloved art-house flick "Lost in Translation."
Box Office Blockbuster
"The Help" may not have the box office numbers of a "Titanic" or "Lord of the Rings," but it is the highest grossing film among this year's nominees by a wide margin, taking in over $169 million at the domestic box office. That total is nearly $100 million more than the next closest Best Picture nominee "War Horse," which has an estimated domestic box office of $78 million. "The Artist" stands at $28 million ahead of only "The Tree of Life" among Best Picture nominees at the box office.
Art vs. Popularity
Why the divide between the art crowd and the mainstream? It may have something to do with ratings for the Academy Awards. Handing the big award to the most popular film in the field is the quickest way to curry favor with fickle awards show viewers who feel the Academy looks down upon non-Academy members. Whatever the reason, the art vs. commerce battle-lines have been drawn; we're set for a showdown on Oscar Sunday.
