Should there be a 'sci-fi' category at the Oscars?

Thursday, 23 February 2012 22:46 | by Martin Anderson

Roger Christian chats to Shadowlocked about the Oscars' continual snubbing of science-fiction fare...

Roger Christian - should there be a sci-fi Oscar?

Shadowlocked's long-time friend, production designer and director Roger Christian (the man who made the prototype light-sabre for Star Wars and concocted the Nostromo interior for Alien) brought up a subject with me recently that I thought might be worth a chat in Shadowlocked's pending new podcast. But since our podcast system won't be ready until after the Oscars take place this coming Sunday, I decided to have a quick VOIP chat with Roger on the subject. Which is...

Should the Oscars have a special category for science-fiction films? As you'll hear in the chat, it's a thorny subject - on the one hand, the possibility of a sci-fi statuette would obviate the chance for a film like Avatar (a favourite of Roger's) to win 'Best Picture' award. And on the other hand, the largest contingency of Academy voters are Caucasian males over 65, and demographically perhaps least likely to appreciate story over style where a once-disreputable genre such as science-fiction is concerned. And if Kubrick's 2001 couldn't win, and if Avatar was overlooked for the anaemic Hurt Locker, can things ever change..? Here's Roger (himself a member of the Academy and eligible to vote in the Academy Awards) and I discussing it (apologies for sound issues due to Gremlin-infested recording session):

More from Roger Christian at Shadowlocked:
shadowlocked.com/roger

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Comments

#1 Producer Lina 2012-02-24 18:34

Really great interview Martin! I have to agree with Roger, there's definitely more with why Avatar didn't win Best Picture. There should be some more stories on Who really is part of the Voting Academy? We don't see those members and believe part of the issue is the lack of diversity and skewed demographic in the voting panel. There needs to be a Sci-Fi category, Star Wars is Epic and still don't understand why George has never won an Oscar? Do a bigger story on this, if you can.

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#2 Director rjchristian@ 2012-02-24 19:18

As an addition to the interview, In todays Toronto Globe and Mail they publish the following figures. A feb 19 Los Angeles Times story based on a detailed study of Oscar voter demographics showed that, besides being 94% Caucasian and 77% male, their median age is 62. This article is all about women's role as Directors at the oscars. Seems to be another subject for debate and as an aside why aren't women directors tackling science fiction subjects.

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#3 Interesting robthom 2012-03-24 02:32

I never knew that there wasn't one.
I guess I assumed that a genre with this large a fanbase and extensive history would necessarily already have one.

At least a Horror/SciFi/Fantasy category.

"...on the other hand, the largest contingency of Academy voters are Caucasian males over 65..."

^^

And thats probably why I never watch the Oscars.

In fact since its still impossible to avoid hearing the results the next day, and they almost consistently offend my soul, I would prefer that they DONT have a SciFi category.

Do you really want to see transformers win a SciFi academy award?!

Can you live with that?

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