Have you always been happy about Oscar nominations and winners? Never had a thought that something is wrong with the Academy’s decisions? Not that they are not well deserved, of course not – in the end, getting to be nominated already means that nominees have done a good job. However, quite often many people remain with a feeling that not the best from the best come to hold the little golden statuette, which means that a person or movie that was highly appreciated by the public is not always what the jury are looking at, the winners being picked according to the subjective opinion of the jury. I always had my own favorites among various Oscar nominations, sometimes they were awarded but in most cases they remained as guests of the ceremony. I started wondering how does the academy voters actually choose the nominations. Is there something more that just a good movie of a talented director? Fist of all, I noticed that quite often the nominated movies feature a lot of known Hollywood stars and very few beginning actors. Whenever a less known actor gets an Oscar, the whole thing sounds more as an exception that would somewhat persuade the audience about the fairness of the ceremony. Secondly, some actors and actresses are nominated just because it became some sort of tradition, or because they are “powerhouses” in the movie industry behind the scenes. Take for example Meryl Streep who has been nominated at least 14 times for a number of roles in ...