Examples of "Oscar-baits"

Just a correction, Goodfellas lost its Oscar to Dances With Wolves a year after Driving Miss Daisy. Daisy beat a bunch of other Oscar Bait (and Do The Right Thing, which was too anti-old white men to even get a nomination).

What nomination? :P

__________________
Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

MoFies!!!!

__________________

But what category?

Best Post

Why, thanks

I would consider Erin Brockovich to be "Oscar-bait"...the story is based on the experience of a real person who took on big bad corporate America and won.

Yep.

Three Oscar wins from eight nominations is enough to constitute a sweep now?

__________________
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Haha. If Crash ripped off PTA's Magnolia then Magnolia ripped off Short Cuts.

Also, Crash is crap.

And for the topic, almost anything released in November and December (wide or limited release).

__________________
"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

12 Years a Slave

Some Oscar bait criteria:
- White guilt. Civil rights dramas but other non-Caucasian races as well (see Slumdog Millionaire and any film relating to the Holocaust).
- A historical setting. This makes the film likely to get artistic Oscar awards such as art design, costume design, etc.
- A biopic. Particularly if the character has any physical quirks
- LGBT. Of course, only non-LGBT actors can win Oscars for this; an LGBT actor will not win an Oscar simply for playing it straight.
- A physical/mental disability.
- An accent
- A 'star performance'. See for example The Iron Lady; the film is poor but Streep's performance was praised. A 'star performance' can make viewers ignore the poorness of the film itself.


These criteria probably cover most Oscar bait movies. There are some less frequent Oscar baits:
- Hollywood's masochistic love for itself (probably started with A Star is Born). Anything about films will be in there for the Oscars but you still have a good chance with the theatre/other art forms.
- 'Quirkiness'. Normally a poor imitation of something already in existence but presented as unique (see The Grand Budapest Hotel) so that we can pretend it's not as derivative as a mainstream film.

__________________
You cannot have it both ways. A dancer who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love can never be a great dancer. Never. (The Red Shoes, 1948)