awards bait
“Awards bait.” The phrase is bandied around a lot this time of year in the run up to the Oscars. But what exactly is it?
Every year, it is easier for audiences to grow more cynical as awards season comes ever-closer, with the plethora of middle-of-the-road “prestige pictures” being dumped by the truckload at multiplexes worldwide, to indifferent audiences who would prefer to watch a star war. For the standard movie fan, prestige season should be an embarrassment of riches, the best films of the year being released all at once like a smorgasbord of cinematic delights. But with each passing year, audiences have wised up to the cynical nature of these movies: