[Photo courtesy of Kelley Lach]

By Cody Englander, Staff Writer

The term ‘Oscar bait’ gets thrown around a lot in conversation when discussing a certain type of movie. More-so as the year comes to an end and some movie-goers look back on the year in film. Publications like “The Independent,” “Business Insider” and “Rolling Stone” have used this term as a critique of the art form.

But what does the term mean? Oscar bait is used to describe a movie that exists only to win awards. This phrase often doesn’t confront other artistic merits of a movie, and most of the time focuses on a specific aspect of the movie—frequently a main performance—from a notable actor in a movie that is seen as otherwise not notable.

Oscars aren’t particularly a merit-based award. Campaigning is a big part of getting movies recognized. These range from parties, special screenings, messages to academy voters or mailed DVDs of the campaigning film. But who are the academy voters?

They are made up of members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which totals to over 10,000 members, with nearly 9,500 able to vote, according to a 2023 article by Vanity Fair. 

A few movies that have garnered this title by critics from the most recent Oscar nominations are Rustin and Maestro. Both of these focus on a titular performance by relatively well known actors Colman Domingo and Bradly Cooper, respectively. While these are movies that rely a lot on the strength of an actor, do they solely exist to win awards?

Firstly, both of these movies came out on Netflix. Having smaller movies accessible by streaming puts these movies both into the public eye, and offers award voters ways to access the movie from their own home if they were unable to previously. Netflix is by far the biggest name when it comes to streaming, and it is often the safest bet for your movie to be watched, although there are outliers (like CODA).

Filmmaker and Director George C. Wolfe discusses the importance of Rustin as an individual in an interview with Filmmaker Magazine. In his 2020 movie Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, he adapts August Wilson’s play of the same name. Wilson has been called the “theater’s poet of Black America” by the New York Times. Wolfe also created Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk in 1995, a musical that covers Black history from enslavement in the United States to the present day.

Rustin is a movie about Bayard Rustin working as a political activist and organizer for The March on Washington. It’s another piece in Wolfe’s history of vocalizing overlooked parts of Black history that often aren’t given the spotlight. This is certainly in Wolfe’s wheelhouse of storytelling. Wolfe himself said in an interview with the New Yorker, “I hate the concept of a biopic.” This is about a person’s experience through an event, not the traditional biopic that covers years of a life. Perhaps the actor’s performance being called Oscar bait in an otherwise unworthy movie speaks more to the merit of the actor rather than anything else. 

For Maestro, Bradley Cooper is often chastised for how far he went to replicate the real life Leonard Bernstein’s directing style in order to win an Oscar. While that may have been a goal of Cooper’s, his dedication to his role isn’t new for actors, in Oscar races or otherwise. This isn’t just for an Oscar, but a care for the medium of film. Cooper tirelessly attempted to embody the actual spirit of Leonard Bernstein. Cooper is quoted as saying “I hoped that he would come every day into me.”

Taking away from a method polluted by a toxic culture of harming other cast members, Cooper says “I never felt vulnerable in a way that would shut me down. Instead, it felt like everybody was living in this illusion that Lenny was there,” in an Indiewire interview. This is a group of creatives coming together to create a piece of art in whole, not to spotlight a specific individual. Cooper is the process, but he’s surrounded himself with creative support throughout the making of the film.

A whole piece of art diluted down to a dismissive two words creates a more dismal precedent for future Oscars. Does the desire to win an award from a single individual warrant an entire movie to be written off?

Had Cillian Murphy taken the lead role in Oppenheimer with a sole desire to win an Oscar, and made it apparently so during the press circuit for the movie, would the movie be perceived differently? With certainty. 

Film has an obvious effect on the people who watch and an unspoken affect about the people who create. There’s a specific sort of diluted down criticism, especially today, calling something Oscar bait. Does every serious movie that revolves around a central character denote that the lead actor wants to win an award? Is the innate desire to create art that evokes serious emotion dying? Are the only movies that can exist without this criticism goofy movies about pre-existing properties? 

Oscars are, now more than ever, seen by the greater public as a self-mastabotory show for Hollywood to give itself awards. The Oscars are certainly far from a perfect organization, but Oscar bait as a term is a weak criticism of an art form. Any movie nominated for an Oscar may not be perfect, as movies rarely are. Diluted criticism like the term Oscar bait, however, does not say anything about quality. At best, it’s a category of film that means a different thing to each person who references it.

Did Robert De Niro take the role of Travis Bickle to win an award? If he did, does this make his role irrelevant? If it released today, how would it be thought of in terms of award races, and could it be taken seriously if Robert De Niro made it known he cared about awards?

Art should have meaning. In their bones, Maestro AND Rustin are both movies with a meaning. That meaning holds far more value than any critique using the term Oscar bait.