Oscars need to fix Best Picture category

In its 98th year, the Academy Awards' Best Picture remains the night's most coveted prize. Classics like Casablanca, Schindler's List and The Godfather have endured, but many winners feel like products of their moment, reflecting industry sentiment, political climate or a safe consensus rather than bold filmmaking.

Voters have long favored prestige dramas—often adaptations or issue-driven films about racism, politics or historical reckoning—over comedy, horror, action and animation. Only this year did the Academy require voters to have watched all nominated films before voting, and that bias has produced surprising outcomes: Spotlight over Mad Max: Fury Road, The Hurt Locker over Avatar, Terms of Endearment over E.T., alongside the omission of classics such as The Matrix, Back to the Future, Psycho, The Shining, Spirited Away and Toy Story.

Even within drama, the body has sometimes chosen the safe option, as with Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan and Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption.

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