Should The Academy create separate categories for musicals and comedies?

There's an article in today's Washington Post that talks about the fact that comedies and musicals are mostly looked over by the Academy. The writer suggests that they create separate picture and acting categories for the two. That way acclaimed films like Superbad, Hairspray, Enchanted, etc., would be able to get more recognition.

I'm kind of on the fence about this idea. I don't think it's a good idea to create separate comedy & musical categories. As mentioned in the article, there aren't enough musicals produced every year to warrant a separate category for them. An exception would be this past year, which had 5 major movie-musicals, which is great considering that a few years ago people considered the genre almost dead.



What the Oscar Drama Needs Is Some Comic Relief

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Updated On: 2/16/08 at 04:09 PM

I think I might be for them creating a musical/comedy category like the Golden Globes do, since there usually aren't enough musicals to fill a separate category. And I do agree that brilliant comedic performances ought to be recognized more often.

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They should NOT combine Comedy & Musical. And the Golden Globes should drop "Musical" from the category of award, too. DREAMGIRLS and SWEENEY TODD, though both have comedic elements, are not comedies.

That being said, I'm split on the decision of having two seperate categories for Drama and Comedy. They used to do this with the Best Score category.

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The Academy would never agree to it, so don't sweat it. This has come up many times before, almost annually, and the answer is no.

They will in no way diminish the relevancy of the "best" awards by splitting up the categories. Never gonna happen.

The only award that seems to be "missing" right now, in my opinion, is for music adaptation. We have original and adapted screenplay categories. We USED to have original and adapted score categories. They need to bring that one back... or just get rid of the adapted screenplay Oscar then (yeah, RIGHT).

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No. In fact, they should eliminated about 1/2 the categories.

I think it would be fine not to have a comedy category if the academy would start to acknowledge great comedic performances. I think they do a better job with musicals than comedies (Chicago, Dream Girls, Sweeney Todd, even more in the past)

I don't know whether they should have a separate one for the Oscars but I do think the Golden Globes should get rid of the Musical part of the Musical/Comedy award- films like Dreamgirls and Sweeney Todd definitely shouldn't be classed in the same category as comedies.

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" Or when were WALK THE LINE, LA VIE EN ROSE, and RAY musicals? "

I'm sorry, but I'm a little stumped here. Aren't those films exclusively about musicians and aren't they filled with the music of those musicians?

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No, it's just that most movies pre-August aren't even worth releasing, let alone awarding.

What a stupid, stupid idea. A good film is a good film, regardless of it's genre.

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They're well made films, therefore they are recognized by the academy. They have made lots and lots of mistakes in the past, but I do think that - overall - they've done a tremendous job at recognizing the best of the best every year.

If a comedy isn't incredibly well written with excellent direction and performances - it doesn't get remembered. What's the problem? There are MANY examples of terrific comedies that HAVE been recognized by the academy. Why? Because they're good. And I'm not talking BEST PICTURE - I'm talking overall. Some wonderful comedies are being recognized by the academy this year. Namely:

Ratatouille
Juno
Lars and the Real Girl
The Savages
Charlie Wilson's War
Persepolis

Has the Academy really, horribly, and unforgivably ignored any "great" comedies this year? No, of course they haven't. Would you like to have FOOL'S GOLD or MEET THE SPARTANS eligible for awards?

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