r/Oscars • u/Guilty-Bookkeeper512 • 2d ago
Discussion More Acting Categories
So I've thought this for years and I'm curious what others think. I think that, aside from Best Picture, the acting awards are the ones people tend to care about the most (with the exception of a few well known directors and screenwriters, but those are the exception). I would love to see them double the number of categories by doing a bigger breakdown of the existing categories. I would like to see both of the top awards split into Best Starring Actor/Actress and Best Lead Actor/Actress, and then see both supporting categories split into Best Supporting Actor/Actress and Best Actor/Actress in a Role With Limited Screentime.
Starring is pretty obvious. The name is definitely above the title, their image is probably on the poster, and there's usually only 1-3 per movie (1 main villain/rival, and 1-2 main protagonists, or 1 protagonist plus a love interest or extremely important best friend or family member),
Lead would be for the kinds of roles that we often see compete in supporting and get labeled as category fraud. The people who are billed 3rd-5th but are still basically in the movie the whole time and pretty central to the plot (ie, Geoffrey Rush in the King's Speech). The romantic interest of the lead character who is more properly termed a co-lead rather than a co-star (ie, Meryl Streep in Kramer vs. Kramer is a co-lead to Dustin Hoffman, whereas Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson are true co-stars in Something's Gotta Give). The villain who is omnipresent, doesn't get the same screen time as the hero, but is still in the movie more than anyone except 1-2 protagonists (ie Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men went supporting even though his face covered the whole poster, Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator, or Mo'Nique in Precious). Other supporting roles that are just a lot meatier: Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls (if you think Beyonce was the Start), Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls, both Anita-s in West Side Story, Morgan Freeman in Million Dollar Baby, maybe Anette Benning in American Beauty, Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense, joe Pesci in GoodFellas, Olivia de Havilland in Gone With the Wind, JK Simmons in Whiplash, Claude Raines in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. This could also be the category for submitting ensemble casts with no true "star" (Spotlight, Crash, Short Cuts) - everyone in the main ensemble goes in Lead with no stars, and anyone who isn't part of the main ensemble goes in Supporting or Limited. So for Spotlight, you could have 4 on the actual Spotlight team all go in as Lead; Stanley Tucci, Liev Schrieber, and John Slattery under consideration as Supporting, and then maybe Billy Crudup in the Limited category.
With co-leads in their own category, Supporting could be for truly supporting performers. Queen Latifah doesn't have to compete against Catherine Zeta-Jones for Chicago. Teri Garr doesn't have to compete with Jessica Lange for Tootsie. Michael J. Pollard doesn't have to compete with Gene Hackman for Bonnie and Clyde.
The Limited Screen Time category (I'm open to suggestions for better, more concise names) would be for parts that almost never get recognized, the people who make a big impact in just one or two scenes, but really don't have enough time to compete with a supporting performer who is in half of the movie. I'm thinking of Viola Davis in Doubt, Beatrice Straight and Ned Beatty in Network, some of the smaller but memorable performances in Gone With The Wind that couldn't go up against Olivia and Hattie (Ona Munson as Belle Watling and Laura Hope Crews as Aunt Pittypat for example), Ruby Dee in American Gangster, Marilyn Monroe in All About Eve, Hermione Baddely in Room at the Top, John Lithgow in Terms of Endearment, Sydney Pollack and Doris Belack in Tootsie, America Ferrara in Barbie, or either of Sylvia Miles' nominations. It's hard to make an impact in just a couple of scenes, and competing with supporting actors who aren't leads but are still in 30-50% of the movie is a big climb.
This would double the number of actors nominated or winning in a given year. It might get more people to watch if their favorite is among the nominees. Supporting would stop being a near constant battle of who got the most screen time and convinced people not to put them in Lead, or at least to the same degree. It would also some newcomers a better shot if they could get a nomination for their first roles, which tend to be smaller, than having to compete with stars who have labeled themselves as supporting to boost their win/nom stats. It would also allow for some honest competition among people who truly are in-betweens in the current lead/supporting dichotomy.
What do people think?
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u/SamShakusky71 2d ago
All more categories do is water down the prestige of the awards and make them less valuable.