Oscar movie nominations: are they often done according to merits?

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 different movies, including: \"Doubt\" (2008), \"The Devil Wears Prada\" (2006), \"Adaptation\" (2002), \"Music of the Heart\" (1999), \"The Bridges of Madison County\" (1995), \"Postcards From the Edge\" (1990) , \"Kramer vs. Kramer\" (1979) and more. Meryl Streep is a good actress and she well deserved her two Oscars already, but weren’t truly there any other competitors to be noticed?

On the other side, this year, the very talented 33-year-old Kate Winslet finally won her first Oscar as the best actress for her role in the romantic drama \"The Reader\", after having been nominated 5 times over the last 13 years. I believe she should have received at least one Oscar during that period and the same idea probably finally came to mind to those who choose the winner.



Another example that confirms that Oscar nominations are not really as fair as someone might think is this year\'s nomination of Josh Brolin as the best supporting actor in the film \"Milk\" that highlights the last 8 years of life of Harvey Milk. I found a pretty interesting theory saying that his nomination is linked with the fact that his stepmother is Barbra Streisand, who was expected to show up as a result of her son\'s nomination. Generally speaking about “Milk”, many think that this story about a homosexual was quite overestimated, and Mickey Rourke in the “Wrestler” much more deserved an Oscar.



All these rumors and questions just show that Oscar nominations are far from being completely fair. Why in an era of the Internet domination and an easy access of the whole world to online voting resources not launching some kind of an Oscar Viewer’s Choice to let the public choose its most favored?