In the year that Moonlight won the highest honor in the Cinematic world just a year prior the Academy and Entertainment world was up in a whirlwind over “Oscar so White” and claims of a biased system that refused to honor people of color. There were claims that the voting staff overwhelmingly consisted of older, white, male participants only prone to honor films after their own similitude despite being presided over by a Female African-American. The top films elected had few people of color involved and the top performing departments lacked people of color period. This started a social media firestorm where both Hollywood elites and fans of the Hollywood elites weighed in. A year later a black - gay themed film won best picture and a few people of color were sprinkled into nominations for the top performing roles, such a drastic night to day change in the voting hemisphere made it all seem a bit… token…

 

It seemed like a give the baby its bottle and it’ll stop crying, give the dog a bone, give the bum some change, not to use such harsh analogies but very few feel like Moonlight was Hollywood’s best interpretation of cinematic storytelling superiority and only won the honor on the account of the bitching moaning and complaining of a certain demographic.

In the years to follow it would seem that the Academy would continue to pander to whichever community was the flavor of the year, everyone had a political agenda, it seemed like the honors were hardly about the craft of the art but rather who had the best message to connect the nation’s latest social draw.

Of course there were exceptions. Lady in the Water, a film about a human’s romance with a water creature doesn’t sound off on any current social strains now but with technology advancing and human’s exploring different objects of affection this film very well could be the prequel to a futuristic societal cause.

I’m not saying the Academy’s choices are all total pander cases I’m saying that it tends to at times ignore skillset in favor of emotional pacification. This is the very thing whether done in the past or on order to be done robs both the filmmaker and their fans of the true honors and rewards of the craft and when it becomes political it then becomes an absolute turn off. It then on another level becomes just a room full of rich people congratulating each other and telling the poor bastards at the bottom of the hills how to live life and deal with social issues, how to defy your government, how to accept and take in people they themselves would not tolerate to exist in their neighborhoods unless they were there to paint or deliver something. Truth be told, if we were to have elected the films that were actually superior artistically, with story, and with the technical and performance elements then many of those films that actually were nominated for an Oscar over the last 15 years would not have even have qualified to be nominated. Great films get snubbed every year you could argue but many great ones have gotten snubbed to make room for films that tackled dialogue to push agendas.

 

Why we need the DBS

The DBS Distribution and Broadcast System regulates the Motion Picture Standard. The Motion Picture Standard competes films currently playing at the box office against other films. Both competing films are judged according to a rubric that allows points to go to either of the films. The film with the most points wins. A film’s win/loss record will determine their bracket eligibility providing they have satisfied the minimum amount of wins necessary to advance. A playoff between the top films throughout the year will end in a one on one with one standing Champion. The winner takes the Ordinal, the new standard of Cinematic perfection.

In a nutshell what I just mentioned explains a system that crowns the best according to points and not the flavor of the month or the cause of the year. An observer would be forced to set aside personal prejudices and opinions and determine what a better film is according to skill set via a rubric that encompasses the various departments of a motion picture piece from story to performance to editing, lighting and sound and yes we have to add “message” in there of course but that department isn’t the be all-end all to victory. So gone is the Oscar bait recipes that have held the industry captive over the years from the Holocaust, Slavery, Historical, ethnic, biopic types. Now is the time for films that have made waves without recognition, anybody remember the Dark Knights or Nightcrawler? Two films to mention from the past that surely should have made the best picture nod and they would have had the DBS System been in full force during those years but as they say: its here now and its here better late than never.