Oscar Categories I'd Like to See

Of course, there’s a lot wrong with the Oscars.  Genre bias for Best Picture the most egregious of them. 

ABOLISH: BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, BEST ANIMATED SHORT

In addition to being a ghetto award, it really is pointless to have an award for the best movie that happens to be animated.  It seems to be an excuse to never award BP to anything from this medium, though it doesn’t stop them from getting nominated, resulting in a rather anticlimactic Best Animated category.  Also, the distinction probably should not apply to short films, either. 

ABOLISH: BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Yet another ghetto award.  Perhaps the BP nominee list should be expanded accordingly.

ADD: BEST DIRECTOR OF AN ANIMATED FEATURE

While the Best Animated Feature category has no logical reason to exist, this one does.  The logistics of making an animated film are different from those of a live-action one, and the distinction should be recognized.  It also provides the opportunity to reward animated films for great visual style or innovative technique (Book of Life and Loving Vincent) regardless of whether they’re overall superior movies. 

ADD: BEST STUNT

This has been lobbied for for many years.  These professionals sacrifice their bodies for memorable moments, and they don’t even get an Oscar for it. 

ADD: BEST ACTION CHOREOGRAPHY AND EDITING

This is one of those things that could be split into two: how good the action is vs. how well it’s shot.  There could be an accommodation for great action in CGI animation.

RENAME SOUND EDITING TO SOUND DESIGN

These are the two Oscars that always confuse everyone.  There is a difference, but it seems to have a lot to do how the filmmaking machine works: the two tasks are separated in a way that may seem counterintuitive to the layman.  The Academy itself seems confused by this as well.  It mostly shrugs and nominates the BP nominees with significant overlap that suggests they’re half-assing it.  This renaming could reduce a lot of confusion and ambiguity. 

…and just for fun…

ADD: BEST SONG COVER

This could be a pretty interesting category, even if the Oscars would probably screw it up.  Good examples of recipients would be Le Mis’ soundtrack and this.

ADD: BEST SOUNDTRACK COMPILATION

This could get a little too subjective, but it would be nice to make an award for selecting pre-existing songs and utilizing them in a movie.  Well, at least for last year.  Maybe I’m just saying this because Atomic Blonde, Baby Driver, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 made 2017 a freakishly good year for this.  However, ridiculously played-out songs like "Hallelujah," "Moonlight Sonata," and "Bad Reputation" should not count toward it.  Especially not "Bad Reputation."

ADD: BEST TRAILER

Trailers are a part of the film industry, and they can be essential for marketing.  It might be a tricky choice because it has to balance entertainment a few elements: how good it makes the movie look, how much it reveals about the movie, and how entertaining the trailer itself is.

ADD: BEST TRAILER MUSIC

Trailer music is often better than the scores of the movies themselves, so why not?