The 89th Academy Awards are this weekend, where all the nominees will fight tooth and nail for the highest accolade a film can get and then pretend they didn't want it anyway when La La Land eventually wins everything. Even though up to 10 titles can receive a nomination for Best Picture, there are always bound to be a few snubs, and 2016 was no different. Many thought that Deadpool would be the first comic book film to receive a nomination, but it just wasn't meant to be. Even the host of this week's event, Jimmy Kimmel, wishes that the Merc with a Mouth had some Oscar love. He said:
I would have liked to have seen Deadpool get nominated. I do think there's a certain type of movie that's not considered for awards. It's a shame, because there's nothing serious about the movies; they're an escape. I think comedies are also underappreciated. There's maybe too much gravity applied to the nomination process.
Jimmy Kimmel told Variety that he would have liked to see Deadpool up on that list of nominees for Best Picture. The superhero blockbuster was the surprise hit of 2016, premiering early in the year and completely knocking the socks off of fanboys and casual moviegoers alike. The film broke record after record at the box office, accumulating over $363 million in the U.S. alone. It was a hit with fans and critics alike, and its subversive nature made it seem like the comic book movie had a credible chance to get an Academy Award -- the first of its genre to do so. Obviously that didn't happen, and Deadpool and Ryan Reynolds had to contend with that Golden Globe nomination.
Kimmel definitely has a valid point that certain types of movies are overlooked come award season for not being Oscar-y enough. Lower scale dramas usually taking the spotlight away, with comedies and broader (and better liked) blockbusters like Rogue One especially feeling the blow. Academy Award-nominated films usually tend to be pretty gray and it would have been refreshing to see a splash of color like Deadpool up on that list. La La Land is filling out that role now, and given the attitude towards the award show, it's clear that if the Oscars want to stay relevant, they need to start shaking up what it means to an Oscar-nominated film. If that means a mix of broader hits with the indie dramas, then so be it.
Should Deadpool have been nominated is a different question. Frankly, if The Dark Knight couldn't get a nomination, then Deadpool sure as hell wasn't either. Still, the potential was there and we'll all simply have to wait for the next comic book smash hit to potentially break through that glass ceiling.
The 89th Academy Awards are this Sunday, February 27, and the ceremony begins at 8:30 p.m. EST on ABC.
