"By the time the Oscars roll around at the end of the awards process, a herd mentality tends to have set in. When everybody has already voted at all the other awards shows for, say, The King's Speech or The Shape of Water, the Academy members follow suit. It's rare for a Best Picture winner ever to be a complete surprise."
"Prestige counts at the Oscars. That is why a stodgy literary biopic like The Life of Emile Zola somehow won the main award at the 1937 Oscars. It's a solid and worthy piece of work, with a grandstanding performance from Paul Muni (under a lot of whiskers) as the campaigning French novelist."
Only 94 films have won the Best Picture Oscar, selected by approximately 10,000 Academy members from within the film industry. While this distinguishes the award from other ceremonies, the Academy still makes baffling choices. By the time the Oscars occur at the end of the awards season, herd mentality dominates voting patterns. Academy members typically follow decisions made at earlier award shows, making surprise winners rare. Several questionable films have won despite other films being more deserving. Examples include The Life of Emile Zola, a stodgy literary biopic that won in 1937 based on prestige rather than merit, and Green Book, which faced significant criticism despite its Best Picture victory.
Read at The Independent
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