Does the Academy Awards Need a Best Popular Film Category?

WDCB's Gary Zidek talks to Daily Herald multiplatform editor and Widescreen columnist Sean Stangland about some of the recently announced changes to the Academy Awards ceremony.

LISTEN HERE

WDCB's Gary Zidek talks to the Daily Herald's Sean Stangland about the proposed changes to the Academy Awards.

"It's going to further drive a wedge between the "art" movies, for lack of a better term, and the popular movies, and that should overlap. A great movie should be able to straddle that line. And we've had movies that do that plenty of times in Oscar history.  Good examples recently, in the last 20 years we've had Gladiator, we've had The Return of the King, we've had Chicago. So, we've had the intersection of art and commerce plenty of times in Oscar history. But ABC is panicking because it hasn't happened in recent history, and the ratings are diving." - Sean Stangland talking about the decision to add a Best Popular Film category.

No details about the criteria for the proposed new Best Popular Film Award have been released. The 91st annual Academy Awards Ceremony will take place Sunday February 24, 2019.