A lot has been made about the Academy’s snub of Ben Affleck’s direction of Argo, despite wide acclaim for the movie. The subsequent criticism of the Academy is certainly warranted, particularly if you want to focus on the fact that Affleck provided a movie that is essentially about a half-dozen people getting on an airplane and dealing with security that might only be a bit more harsh than that at modern-day JFK or Heathrow, but I digress.
The bigger moment to come out of this snub is from the Critics’ Choice Awards that were held on January 10, the evening of the nefarious Oscar nominations.
While three of the presumed candidates for the Oscar in February (Kathryn Bigelow, Tom Hooper, Ben Affleck) were omitted from the morning’s nominations, they all found their way to the final nominees for the Critic’s Choice Awards.
So guess the reaction of the crowd when the momentarily-forgotten Affleck was honored for his work on Argo:
the entire audience turned to his table and spontaneously rose to a standing ovation in a clear show of support and comfort. Affleck was clearly wounded by the morning’s news but heartened by this late development as he began his acceptance speech by saying, ‘I would like to thank the Academy,’ then skipped a beat and added, ‘Just kidding! This is the one that counts.’ [source]
I won’t waste too much paper – or digital pixels – offering my thoughts on how much better a film Argo is than Lincoln or how Spielberg’s direction is quaternary in importance behind Lewis’ performance, Jones’ performance, and the screenplay. What I will say is that the Academy Awards reminds us year in and year out how inconsequential they prove themselves to be. And how anyone participating in an Oscar pool should never bet on who should win, but rather who will win based on clout in the Academy, reputation, previous nominations, previous wins, and ability to promote.
