Why the Oscars shouldn't sell out to stay relevant

Like a lot of hardcore movie fans I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the Academy Awards.

On the one hand, I love seeing movies I champion (like 2017 Best Picture winner Moonlight) get recognized (and more importantly promoted for a wider audience), they frequently just get their nominations all wrong -- embracing consensus favorites over the most worthy performances. And of course, every year the show is always too long and too self-important.

That said, the big announcement that came out today -- that they're adding a new, so far untitled category aimed at more commercial cinema -- seems like a terrible step in the wrong direction.

Other recent efforts to diversify the voting population and refine the voting pool seemed positive to me, and appeared to pay off when recent years bucked the problematic #OscarsSoWhite trend. Every year, bigger hits have competed for Best Picture alongside little seen critical darlings, and while ratings have suffered I think it has little to do with the movies being nominated and more to do with the fact that there a dwindling audience for television (even event TV in general).

Yes, in 2008 there was enormous backlash against the academy when they snubbed the biggest film of that year -- the critically acclaimed The Dark Knight -- in the Best Picture and Director races. I actually think that frustration was warranted, especially when an infinitely inferior film -- the mediocre but traditionally Oscar-baity movie The Reader -- did make the final five.

So then the academy expanded the Best Picture race to a maximum of 10, which has had mixed results. For every cool, unconventional Best Picture nominee like District 9 and Mad Max: Fury Road, there have been some embarrassing head scratchers like The Blind Side.

But when that was the only nod to commerce I was fine with it.

This new move feels even more desperate and pandering to me. For starters, it presumes audiences aren't tuning in simply because they haven't seen prestige films, but I believe a lot of the audience tuning in has seen those films, or would like to once they see them taking home major awards (an Oscar bounce at the box office is still very much a thing).

Historically big Hollywood productions have always competed with smaller fare. Titantic, Avatar, Star Wars and many other of the highest grossing films of all time have competed for Best Picture, and some have won.

Clearly, there is room both types of movies, so why isolate and ghettoize so-called popular entertainment? A move like this only makes the Oscars seem more condescending and snobby than they already are.

And my biggest fear is that my favorite film of the year so far -- Black Panther -- which is also ironically the biggest U.S. domestic hit of the year -- will pay the biggest price for this reform. Black Panther received rave critical reviews and its the first Marvel movie to receive legitimate Oscar buzz not just for its prodigious technical achievements and costuming, but for its director, Ryan Coogler, villain, Michael B. Jordan, and the film itself.

Creating this new category could divert potential legit Best Picture votes away from this beloved movie, which is widely seen as elevating and revolutionizing the superhero genre with a script that actually had something to say about geopolitics but did it with style and panache.

I saw it again recently for I think the fourth time and none of its power has diluted for me. It reminded me of the early Star Wars films, with its disarming humor, lightening quick pace and deeply felt emotional scenes. It deserves to be considered alongside traditional Oscar movies, not dismissed and or relegated to some sort of manufactured second tier.

The Oscars have always been a popularity contest so making a popular film category is a bit of an oxymoron -- it's just that it's also been about the respect of members of the industry too, and nominating a film for the traditional Best Picture race has long been a marker of respect. Those are the films that will be brought up whenever future generations look a year of cinema in total, and while winning or not winning awards is not a deal-breaker for a movie's legacy (after all so many greats won none) it doesn't hurt either.

I think what the academy has done today and what they are going to do is going to hurt some of the films I love and adore, and at the end of the day I don't think it'll fix what's broken about an awards show that I never miss, but which frustrates the hell out of me from time to time.