Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Okri wrote:This is the first time ever all the costume design nominees were best picture nominees. Also true of Production Design.

If that doesn't tell you how stupidly short the season is, nothing will.

This has been a multi-stage process.

The move in 2004 from a late March to late February date began to shrink the field of contending films, as fewer people had time to screen a wide variety of films prior to voting.

Then, the expansion to 10 best picture slots caused people to narrow their focus to, largely, films with a shot at best picture, reducing the chances of a performance in a smaller film slipping through. (Consider the supporting actor slate of 2015, which featured four candidates from best picture contenders, while highly-praised performances from lower-tier films -- Elba/Beasts of No Nation, Dano/Love Mercy, DelToro/Sicario -- were omitted.)

This is only the culmination of the trend. A bountiful year in film is being reduced to, basically, nine movies plus Judy, because of an absurdly early cut-off. Do people not see they're killing the Oscars by degrees?

This is the first time ever all the costume design nominees were best picture nominees. Also true of Production Design.

If that doesn't tell you how stupidly short the season is, nothing will.

I didn't immediately see a post for trivia, so if there is one and I missed it, let me know and we can merge them.

Anyway, I was prepping my spreadsheet of Oscar winners/nominees and their birthdays and as I was going through the tech categories to pick out films that were nominated, I noticed something peculiar and I'm curious if I just now noticed this trend or if this year is more obvious.

In the tech categories (Editing, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects), only 9 films weren't Best Picture nominees.

The Lighthouse in Cinematography; Maleficent, Bombshell, and Judy in Makeup; Ad Astra in Sound Mixing; Star Wars in Sound Editing; and Avengers, Lion King; and Star Wars in Visual Effects.

Further, all of Film Editing, Production Design, and Costume Design were Best Picture nominees. I cannot recall it ever being this pronounced.

For that matter, the nine most nominated films are all Best Picture nominees with no non-Best Picture nominee earning more than three nominations. That's also true of 2016, 2013, and 2010. That's also an interesting pattern, from 2010 on, every 3 year sees a slate where no non-Best Picture nominee crack the top of the roster with more than 3 nominations.