Over at Pajiba, Daniel Carlson unleashed a broadside against "awards season," the end of the year barrage of prestige pictures and Oscar frontrunners that gets film critics wrapped up in the Academy Awards and convinces us to treat the Oscars as if they have more significance than any other trade awards show. I'm relatively ambivalent about the idea that obsessing over awards shows is harmful to films as artistic objects. But I'm totally with him on the frustration of being flooded with great films:
Worse, awards coverage treats movies as if they exist only for the few weeks at the end of the year when studios put out "prestige" titles that are designed to capture award nominations. There’s no real secret to why they put out these movies at the end of the year: our brains look more fondly on recent experiences, so studios want films to come out as close to the nominating cycle as possible. There’s also a self-fulfilling prophecy involved; since the end of the year is now associated with award contenders or prestige titles, releasing your movie at that time can give you a subconscious boost in the mind of the voter.
It's an exhilarating time: Looking over my year-end best-of list, I count at least a half-dozen released this month that are either in the top ten or right on the bubble. And that doesn't even include Wolf of Wall Street or Inside Llewyn Davis, neither of which I've seen yet. But it's also a deeply frustrating time, one in which watching great films begins to feel like an obligation and a burden instead of something enjoyable.
I know, I know: poor little rich kid, and all that. But those of us who take this sort of thing seriously can't help but feel a little flustered when they receive dozens of DVDs from awards-season hopefuls. It would be nice if the studios simply abandoned the whole concept of "awards season" and instead released great films throughout the year. The "summer season" has slowly expanded, beginning now in April or May and running through September. Meanwhile, studios have realized that tentpoles work just as easily in the winter as they do in the summer: Avatar and all five Lord of the Rings movies were released in December, and they earned all the dollars.
There's no reason a great film released in June (or February, or August) can't compete at the Oscars. Indeed, it may even provide them a boost: Having the "prestige" market all to oneself in these traditionally un-prestigious months could help films catch some extra attention instead of getting lost in the shuffle. It would certainly provide some fodder for audiences starving for something a bit smarter during blockbuster season. And it would keep critics like myself from going insane in December.