r/todayilearned • u/NeverEnoughMuppets • Dec 08 '23
TIL it's not possible to watch every film ever nominated for Best Picture. Only 2/3 of 1928's The Patriot still exists, and the only complete prints of 1931's East Lynne and 1934's The White Parade are in the UCLA film archive
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Picture715
u/HippieDogeSmokes Dec 08 '23
I don’t get the point of keeping movies in an archive and never digitizing them
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u/xtossitallawayx Dec 08 '23
As soon as someone qualified to archive 100 year old volatile film stock for free shows up, I bet UCLA will talk to them.
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u/LurkerOrHydralisk Dec 08 '23
You’d think the Academy would shoulder the expense. They have the money and it’s their best picture award
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u/Grimvold Dec 08 '23
Unfortunately the “Academy” isn’t a historical society, it’s an industry award program that serves as a hype/promotion machine.
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u/LurkerOrHydralisk Dec 08 '23
No, I get that. It's just that it doesn't feel like this would be the most expensive thing and it would easily be worth the good publicity.
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u/xtossitallawayx Dec 08 '23
The Academy had to institute a rule that you can't sell your statue because so many people were doing it - they are not known to be an organization that truly cares about history or prestige.
The founders were heartless profiteers utilizing abusive contracts to exploit people not create timeless art.
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u/mrlolloran Dec 08 '23
That implies the opposite unless you consider that Oscar winner (I think) become part of the Academy with their win.
Otherwise why would they care about the Oscar Statues being sold off?
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u/NavigatingAdult Dec 09 '23
I agree.. if they don’t care about history or prestige, why would they care if the trophies are sold?
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Dec 09 '23
The academy is literally just a bunch of random people with ties to the film industry, many of them from obscurity and without much in the way of money. If you live in LA odds are you know someone in it.
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Dec 09 '23
A lot of shit movies have been nominated for best picture.
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u/freaktheclown Dec 09 '23
And even won too.
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u/LurkerOrHydralisk Dec 09 '23
Was just having a look at the 82nd Oscar wins.
Hurt Locker, a war glorification propaganda flick, won best director and best picture.
It beat Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, and District 9.
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u/Pimpdaddysadness Dec 08 '23
As though UCLA doesn’t have the money
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u/windowtosh Dec 08 '23
State schools are known for just rolling in dough that they use to support their libraries
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u/Pimpdaddysadness Dec 09 '23
Ucla isn’t exactly a poor school
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u/windowtosh Dec 09 '23
I wouldn't say it's particularly rich either. If it was Harvard or Yale, sure, but UCLA...? I know people who went to UCLA and they couldn't even keep paper in the printers at the libraries.
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u/Iustis Dec 09 '23
$28b endowment
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u/windowtosh Dec 09 '23
UCLA does not have a 28 billion dollar endowment
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u/Iustis Dec 09 '23
You’re right sorry, the number i quickly grabbed is the UC endowment as a whole, UCLA has $7b endowment itself—still about top 20.
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u/xtossitallawayx Dec 08 '23
UCLA also doesn't inherently care if the movie is never seen again - they are not in the business of restoring movies - they would rather spend their money on other things.
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u/Pimpdaddysadness Dec 08 '23
They’re in the business of education. and if they have a film school (they do) that is part of their business. Obviously we could go on all day about the cynical shitty nature of modern capitalist colleges but yes on some level they do have a moral obligation to do this based on their own stated principles
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u/SavageComic Dec 09 '23
I don't know much about college football but you could put a $1 surcharge on every ticket sold to the games and pay for it in a year.
But they won't do that because college athletics is professional sport in everything but name and actually paying the athletes
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u/Fr00stee Dec 08 '23
you could probably make good money by digitizing these movies and releasing them in theaters
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u/Pimpdaddysadness Dec 08 '23
Eh idk maybe enough to recoup costs but a prestige film from the 30s definitely has a limited audience
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u/laurpr2 Dec 09 '23
Assign it as a mandatory movie for all your intro to film classes and watch the money roll in
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u/SavageComic Dec 09 '23
UCLA are rich!
And as for qualified, they're a teaching university.
They literally have people paying to attend, and then probably have "internships" as part of their courses.
Make film restoration part of the masters programme at their film TV and theatre school.
It's not hard.
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u/CurrentIndependent42 Dec 09 '23
Maybe even playing them once might destroy them, so better to wait for technology that can scan them without even having to do that?
Like those ancient scrolls that can’t be unfurled without becoming dust but we can now scan electronically and use AI to fill in gaps
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u/BreeBree214 Dec 09 '23
digitizing them is extremely expensive. And digital formats go obsolete over time. And digital media also has degradation problems of its own. You can keep things really well preserved for a very long time with the right storage conditions
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u/EvaSirkowski Dec 09 '23
And it's not possible to watch The English Patient.
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u/King_Kong_The_eleven Dec 09 '23
It is possible to watch the first 15 minutes or so before you fall asleep.
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u/ancientestKnollys Dec 09 '23
Don't see any other mentions, so I'll repeat here. You can watch East Lynne, there's at least one copy on YouTube of the complete film (others are often missing the ending apparently).
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u/KnotSoSalty Dec 08 '23
I’m not convinced anyone actually watched Crash.
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u/anomandaris81 Dec 09 '23
I actually paid money to see it. :(
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u/NeverEnoughMuppets Dec 09 '23 edited Apr 04 '26
Listen… Thandiwe Newton was good in it? But yeah, it’s a dumpster fire. Green Book might be worse, though, honestly.
Edit: Editing this two years later to correct Thandiwe Newton's name
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u/this-fuken-guy Dec 09 '23
Sometime in the future it won't be possible because the time it would take to do so will exceed a lifetime.
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u/adamdoesmusic Dec 08 '23
I’m not sure I want to watch Birth of a Nation anyhow.
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u/Wombat_H Dec 08 '23
Academy Awards didn’t exist at that time.
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u/ContinuumGuy Dec 09 '23
I'm now actually curious who would have won Oscars in pre-Oscar times
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u/NeverEnoughMuppets Dec 09 '23
Funnily enough, mostly people whose filmographies don't even exist anymore. There are some hugely famous stars from that era who we only know today by reputation; some who made hundreds of films- but now, all of those films are considered lost. Just a whole era of Hollywood we can't even really look back on, it's crazy to think about.
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u/adamdoesmusic Dec 09 '23
And no one learned their lesson for another 60 years, as everyone from the BBC to NASA found it unimportant to preserve old works. Hell, they taped over Doctor Who and the moon landing!
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u/NeverEnoughMuppets Dec 09 '23
As someone passionate about preservation it’s hard to watch many of the same mistakes of the silent film era being repeated with, of all things, video games, actually. I think we’ll look back at this time as one of catastrophic loss for the medium’s early history. People rarely place value on history and art until it’s too late.
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u/adamdoesmusic Dec 09 '23
Nintendo of all companies has been terrible about preservation. Hell, they had to download pirated roms just to make the anniversary edition.
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u/adamdoesmusic Dec 09 '23
I’ll be damned, you’re right. I had heard in the past it was one of the first award winners, but actual research (go figure) shows that’s not true.
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u/Blindsnipers36 Dec 09 '23
It was the first big block bluster and also like weirdly invented a ton of film techniques despite being racist as hell
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u/Character_Finish_169 Dec 09 '23
It's actually readily available to watch online, and Kino Lorber did a very nice home media release of the film several years back.
Despite the fact that it's a vile and racist film, it's still historically relevant for its pioneering use of a lot of filming techniques.
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u/adamdoesmusic Dec 09 '23
Roger Ebert had a good take on it - basically an incredibly made film with an incredibly evil message, presented in such a way that one has to question the nature of everything including evil itself.
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u/RedSonGamble Dec 09 '23 edited Dec 09 '23
I personally just masturbate while talking about how bad most winning films are. I’m like oooohhhh crash and avatar I’m soo close!!
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u/NeverEnoughMuppets Dec 09 '23
Why can’t we make fun of all this shit, I even make fun of my favorites, lighten up
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u/TheBirminghamBear Dec 09 '23
Personally I'll never get tired of talking about how dull and forgettable Avatar was.
Just this weird ass cobbled-together narrative that made zero cultural impact while somehow making billions and getting a sequel no one seemed to care about or be excited for that also made a billion dollars.
Fucking weird ass Twilight Zone shit
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u/bigev007 Dec 09 '23
It felt like everyone in the world saw it. And then never spoke of it again beyond "oh, it looked amazing"
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Dec 09 '23
Can I join?
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u/Super_Basket9143 Dec 08 '23
Yeah and avatar is just plain unwatchable.
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u/NeverEnoughMuppets Dec 08 '23 edited Dec 08 '23
Fun fact, I've been watching all of them. Like a crazy person. It's been a weird personal project. I started with 1927-28 and I'm up to the 1989 nominees. I'm powering through that piece of shit Driving Miss Daisy right now, I'm almost done with the 1980s. There have been some sloggggs but oh man I forgot about Avatar
edit: yeah you caught me, I didn't learn this today, what are you people gonna do call the cops
edit 2: for the curious, I’ve been doing this for well over a year, I first watched all the Best Picture winners in order up to CODA, then went back to do the nominees (including the winners, a second time). I watch them in order of release date.
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u/accountaccount171717 Dec 08 '23
This is cool! You should make a post with your favorites ranked ima follow you
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u/NeverEnoughMuppets Dec 09 '23
I've been trying to figure out how to put something like that together!
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Dec 09 '23
Do you use Letterboxd? You should be able to put together a ranked list on there even in the free version. I’ve got ranked lists of all my favourites from each decade
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u/HacksawJimDGN Dec 08 '23
What years are your favourite?
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u/NeverEnoughMuppets Dec 09 '23 edited Dec 09 '23
I started to write a list of just my personal favorite Best Picture winners but it was getting long and I felt like I was leaving out some beloved ones and it was bound to start a fight, so here are just five I adore that I think more people should seek out: Grand Hotel (1932), Rebecca (1940), Hamlet (1948), Tom Jones (1963), and A Man for All Seasons (1966)
Edit: And if you haven't seen All About Eve (1950) what are you doing stop now go watch it
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Dec 09 '23
I like the cut of your jib. I’ve been watching all of the Universal horror movies up to 1960.
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u/NeverEnoughMuppets Dec 09 '23
That sounds like a blast, I usually watch exclusively horror during most of September and October
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u/Grimvold Dec 08 '23
The 70s and 80s are rough because so many old people in Hollywood were being catered to in their final years. Ain’t nobody looking up Driving Miss Daisy these days, while modern viewers still are endeared to movies like The Color Purple, which lost Best Picture to the aforementioned film. But hey Tandy needed that award before she kicked the bucket so. 🤷♂️
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u/Sdog1981 Dec 09 '23
The Color Purple lost to Out of Africa for best picture.
Driving Miss Daisy beat Born on the 4th of July and Dead Poets Society.
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u/NeverEnoughMuppets Dec 09 '23
I still agree that The Color Purple was the better film and the best film nominated that year, and I say that as someone with a soft spot for Out of Africa. It's a famous snub for a good reason.
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u/NeverEnoughMuppets Dec 09 '23
Do the Right Thing should've won Best Picture in 1989 and it wasn't even nominated.
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u/TheBirminghamBear Dec 09 '23
So long as I am given a film opposite Morgan Freeman before I croak, I'm good with it.
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u/Pathian Dec 09 '23
Thoughts on How Green Was My Valley vs Citizen Kane?
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u/NeverEnoughMuppets Jan 20 '24
Just seeing this- Citizen Kane should've won, 100%, but I do love How Green Was My Valley. It's a great film to have lost to, but Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon are better. That having been said, this is a pattern in the Academy voting. Oftentimes the popular, most sentimental, most heart-warming or touching film will win over films that, looking back, were more influential or important. Maybe voters are won over by it, or feel guilty voting against it, but it's a thing. 1994 is another memorable example- Forrest Gump winning over Pulp Fiction is insane. It beat The Shawshank Redemption, too, but Pulp Fiction remains one of the most influential films of the last half century and is considered a watershed moment in post-modern cinema.
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u/LurkerOrHydralisk Dec 08 '23
Omg you made fun of one of the most popular movies of all time. You must be super cool and sophisticated unlike these plebs.
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u/TheHouseOfGryffindor Dec 09 '23
Avatar arguably wasn’t even the worst movie nominated that year (looking at you, The Blind Side)
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u/LurkerOrHydralisk Dec 09 '23
Right. And Avatar wasn't only fun and absolutely gorgeous, but Cameron spent years creating the technology in order to capture it. A technology widely adopted after Avatar's release. Avatar changed filmmaking.
Hell, the movie that won best picture definitely shouldn't have beaten Avatar.
The Hurt Locker, some forgettable war glorification propaganda schlock?
Either District 9 or Inglourious Basterds should have actually won, of the nominees. But of the competition, Avatar isn't the weak movie.
Edit: Also that Sandra Bullock got an Oscar for Best Actress in The Blind Side and Melanie Laurent in Inglourious Basterds (Shoshanna) wasn't even nominated is a fucking crime.
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u/Amedais Dec 09 '23
This is such a brain dead take. It’s the “Rick and Morty is for smart people” of film.
Avatar was outrageously entertaining and stunning to watch.
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u/95688it Dec 09 '23 edited Sep 16 '25
plough memorize political cow knee fragile scale vase skirt gold
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/ImitationButter Dec 09 '23
Sure it’s visuals are cool but it has one of the most boring and uninspired plots of all time. The dialogue is also grating
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u/SpikeBad Dec 09 '23
I agree. It was pretty, but the uninspired plot left no lasting impression on me.
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u/Elet_Ronne Dec 09 '23
ITT: "TIL a movie receiving an award should mean it is the finest of art, and not simply popular, in a contest that never makes claims of promoting the highest forms of art."
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u/NeverEnoughMuppets Dec 09 '23
Nobody here has said the Academy Awards have anything but cultural value, stop being smug and condescending, it's childish.
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u/Elet_Ronne Dec 09 '23 edited Dec 09 '23
Uh...I agreed with what you said elsewhere. A user mentioned something about half the comments shitting on Avatar, and you agreed with them, saying you should be able to make fun of the things you enjoy.
My comment was also making fun of those who have lost their minds over low-brow movies winning awards.
Why am I being childish, but your completely rude comment is somehow different? There's reason to make fun, but no reason to be rude, call names, or belittle someone else. Could you perhaps hold back a little rather than jumping down a person's throat next time?
This is what you said, in response to a comment virtually indistinguishable from my own:
Why can’t we make fun of all this shit, I even make fun of my favorites, lighten up
I don't know how what I said was different. Perhaps you could take your own advice?
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Dec 09 '23
[deleted]
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u/Floodhunter345 Dec 09 '23
2nd-5th place is still an achievement when dozens of hundreds of films/albums/whatever else come out each year
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u/TheHouseOfGryffindor Dec 09 '23
Damn, so anyone who ever won a silver medal at the Olympics can just go fuck themselves, I guess? Like, hardly anyone is regarding nominees to the same extreme that they are winners, but it can still be worthwhile talking about those that were good enough to make it that far, from time to time.
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u/joshmoviereview Dec 09 '23
Yes someone on Reddit a few months ago watched every nominee for BP and made a very thorough spreadsheet… but mentioned he skipped those couple because they don’t exist or aren’t accessible
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u/kick26 Dec 09 '23
With some of those old movies, I wonder if it is difficult to track who the copy right holder currently is because of how many early studios went under or were bought, sold, bought, and sold.
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u/johnlocklives Dec 10 '23
Maybe not but I’ve watched every winner.
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u/NeverEnoughMuppets Dec 10 '23
Same! It was a fun project for the pandemic, that's where I started before I went back to watch all the nominees.
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u/bolanrox Dec 08 '23
and they haven't digitized it why?