Categories: FilmOpinion

Ten Tremendous Oscar Bait Failures

The Birth of a Nation (2016)

  • Domestic Total Gross: $15,861,566
  • Production Budget: $8.5 million
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 71%
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWs5TTn19qk[/embedyt]

 

I do not know if it is the preachy nature of the film’s historical themes, writer/director and star Nate Parker’s past sexual assault allegations, or the fact that the title is synonymous with D.W. Griffith’s infamously racist 1915 propaganda film. Yet for some reason, the Academy did not want to touch this otherwise artistically impressive and equally important biopic of slave rebellion leader Nat Turner.

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Jason Wiese

Jason has been writing since his hands developed the strength to pick up a crayon. Growing up with the original dream to be a filmmaker, by the end of his high school career, he instead decided to pursue the next best thing: film criticism. Jason graduated from Lindenwood University in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism. He currently writes movie reviews for Review St. Louis, Newstime and the Lincoln County Journal - as well as product descriptions for etrailer.com.

View Comments

  • I would argue against this being included in the list, not for any actual quality, but because Lawrence did get the Best Actress nomination. So in that sense, the Oscar-baiting did not fail.

    • True, but considering Russell had been on a roll getting multiple nominations and a few wins for several films in a row, I imagine Lawrence's sole Best Actress nomination must have been a sore and unexpected disappointment for him. That is why I considered "Joy" a failure

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