Topic Of The Day: Oscar Screeners: Pros and Cons

Hello, Bloggers! So, in the wake of Selma being snubbed by the PGA, it has been said that a lot of people in that guild didn't receive DVD screeners for it. It is the same reason it got snubbed by the SAG Awards. They couldn't send screeners out in time. So, I figured I would go into the pros and the cons of sending out screeners and whether they are all necessary. Here we go:

Now, whenever screeners get sent out, some films that they send screeners for are films that came out earlier in the year. In my opinion, sending out screeners for those isn't really necessary because plenty of those films will have been released on VOD or even Redbox by then. So voters can easily seek out those films themselves and still watch them at home. Screeners manage to keep the early birds fresh in their minds, but still.

But one con of screeners, I would say, is that voters tend to receive so many of them. Not only do they receive DVDs of the major frontrunners, but of dark horses that are aching to squeak in. Voters are in many different positions in film and because I'm sure plenty of them work on film projects around nomination ballot time, they might not be able to watch every single screener and it makes screeners seem like a wasted effort almost.

However, one way that screeners can easily benefit much smaller films hoping to squeeze in is that voters get easier access to them. But because they have easier access due to DVDs of those films and because they start out in LA and NY where voters usually reside, it doesn't give audiences a reason to get excited because a lot of us haven't either seen those films or heard of them. Even though when they do get nominated, audiences then try to check them out, so that's one plus.

But one way that I think they can resolve this whole screener issue is for the Academy to send voters a list of eligible films or films submitted for consideration in each category and have the voters decide what films or performances they want to enter in their ballots and what films they want to seek out. That way, when the studios try to send out screeners, voters can say "Guys, we are going to pick who we want!". I am positive they have minds and tastes of their own. They could even do the same thing for the different guilds and have them the SAG send a list of performances submitted for consideration to members and the PGA send out a list of films submitted for consideration to their members and so on and so forth.

So, those are my thoughts on the pros and cons of sending out screeners and if you have your own opinion on the screener debacle, please feel free to let your own voice be heard in the comments section. Thanks for reading!