The Oscars Wants You To Go To The Movies.

https://www.tmz.com/2026/03/16/lewis-hamilton-celebrates-f1-movie-oscar/

So it's time for the annual discussion about the very narrow type of Movie that The Oscars considers.

A big theme of The Oscars 2025 was Actors as Sex-Workers. How Generative AI can turn actors and non-actors into unconsenting sex-workers through DeepFake Porn. How Generative AI can replace actors entirely. As a result much of this discussion last year had to lean towards how The Oscars and US society is competitively squemish when it comes to sexual content.

However, in a roundabout way The Oscars 2025 looked at "Metropolis" (1927) which is an Expressionist Movie. There are still plenty of Expressionist Movies being made, even if the only way most people are able to access them is through Streaming Platforms like Amazon Prime Video. Yet only Objective Realist Movies seem to get nominated at The Oscars.

I think the closest The Oscars has come to nominating an Expressionist Movie in recent years was; "Everything Everywhere All At Once" (2022). Even that had a clear linear narrative though. Despite being a Movie about how time is relative and everything and everywhen is happening all at once.

The Oscars has also long been particularly snobbish about Horror Movies. Something which seems to particularly go against The Oscars desire for people to actually go to the Movies. Horror is a genre that is enduringly popular and not only that is enduringly popular amoungst people who actually go to the Movies. Horror movies regularly top Movie Theatre box-office charts. It's easy to be cynical and talk only in terms of the money they make. However the reason why they make money is that enough people enjoy them enough to go to Movie Theatres and spend money to watch them. Even in the age of Streaming people still enjoy going and being scared in the company of strangers as a collective experience.

Then there are the big budget Action Blockbusters. Although there are exceptions like; "The Fast & Furious" saga these all seem to be Directed by Jerry Bruckheimer and star Tom Cruise as part of his mission to single-handly save Movie Theatres. As with Horror Movies, despite the fact that these are the Movies that people enjoy enough to go to Movie Theatres and spend their money to watch them The Oscars tend to look down on Action Blockbusters.

One of the Movies nominated at The Oscars 2025 was; "A Complete Unknown" (2024). This featured Monica Barbaro who had previously featured alongside Tom Cruise in Jerry Bruckheimer's "Top Gun: Maverick" (2022). Despite writing extensively about A Complete Unkown (2024) I realised that I'd never actually seen any of Monica Barbaro's work. So when I channel surfed to discover Top Gun: Maverick (2022) was on TV I sort of left it on in the background, only looking up from my tablet for the bits that Monica Barbaro was in.

Even if I had been paying attention I suspect that it would probably have been quite a lacklustre Movie in terms of plot and acting performance. However it was easy to see how if you were watching it in a modern Movie Theatre, even one without an IMAX screen, with an advanced sound system the lengthy action sequences would be quite a visceral experience. If they were able to add pneumatic lifts to the seats it would pretty much be the flight-simulators they train actual pilots on.

Perhaps another reason why Action Blockbusters tend to get overlooked at The Oscars is that Awards Season is supposed to support months of discussion about a variety of topics. Althought they're enjoyable Action Blockbusters don't really leave you with much to talk about. One of my proudest moments was being able to write a political analysis for; "Baywatch" (2017). Something you'd think would be an impossible task.

Despite only having it on mute on the TV in the background I did still get drawn into the big action sequence at the end of Top Gun: Maverick (2022). When they fly the mission they'd been training for. I decided that I must have missed the all important part at the start of the War Movie where they explain who they're fighting the war against. So I watched the final sequence looking for clues about who the baddies were. Things like flags and insignia on uniforms and aircraft. 

It was then I realised that not only hadn't the start of the War Movie explained who the war was being fought against, let alone why. They'd actually gone to great lengths to sanitise the War Movie to make sure there were absolutely no clues as to who the baddies might be. As not to alienate any potential customers, anywhere in the World. So the baddies were a bit like North Korea, they were a bit like China, they were a bit like Iran, they were a bit like Russia and they were a bit like the Yugoslavian Cantons NATO created during the 1990's. Yet at the same time they weren't enough like any of them to be identified as anyone, offending no-one.

So really the only talking point Top Gun: Maverick (2022) raised was how it was not only completely devoid of any substance great lengths had been gone to at all stages of production to make sure there was no trace of substance in it. Good luck discussing that for months on end. Even briefly writing about it here makes it sound like I'm insulting it far more than it deserves to be insulted.

At The Oscars 2026 the Jerry Bruckheimer produced; "F1" (2025) seemed to represent all of the Action Blockbusters. Along with all the issues of why The Oscars tends to overlook this type of Movie Theatre saving genre.

As with Top Gun: Maverick (2022) I'd imagine that if you were watching them in a modern Movie Theatre with an advanced sound system the action sequences in F1 (2025) would be a very visceral experience. Stopping just short of the simulators actual F1 drivers train on. Unlike Top Gun: Maverick (2022) it also provides you with plenty to talk about. The real world of F1.

That is a topic I can talk about extensively. I used to be a serious F1 fan. For the very nerdy reasons of the way that it uses engineering to push the limits of the physical laws of the Univerise. "Doing things to the n^th degree of stupid" as it's sometimes known.

A big part of this was in-race refuelling. Under the 2024 rules the minimum weight of a F1 car could be was 796kg. While the maximum weight of fuel it could carry was 110kg. Roughly 1/9th of the total weight. Obviously though as that fuel is used the weight reduces. Something which has a substantial impact on how the car performs. 

For a start it allows it to go faster. The same amount of power will move a lighter object over the same distance more quickly. It also affects things like the car's ride height which, in turn affects the airflow over the car, reducing the aerodynamic grip available. It also reduces the amount of mechanical grip provided by the tyres.

So when in-race refuelling was allowed alongside in-race tyre changes you had this very complicated strategic element of timing the pitstops. Not only to minimise the time spent stationary but also to achieve the maximum performance of the car at certain points during the race. People used to complain that there wasn't enough overtaking. However those people didn't realise that an overtake wasn't the moment when one car passed another. It was the many minutes across many laps in which two cars did battle in terms of the driver's skill, the skill of the designers and the strategy to get the maximum performance out of the car at the right time.

When F1 banned in-race refuelling in 2010 that element of advanced engineering and strategy was lost from the sport. However overtaking did not increase. So F1 started to rely more and more on tacky gimmicks. Things like the Drag Reduction System (DRS) which collapsed part of the rear spoiler to reduce aerodynamic drag to give a small boost of speed for overtaking Or a hybrid drive system which collected energy generated by braking and stored it in a battery to be used by an electric motor to give a small boost of speed for overtaking.

As far as I'm concerned those gimmicks ended F1 as a sport and dumbed it down to the level of a Jerry Bruckheimer Directed Action Movie. The sort of thing where a Ford Bronco truck driving Redneck could come around the corner and be taken seriously, let alone win.

Although I long ago stopped watching I gather F1 is now a US owned Corporation, rather than a European owned sport. I think that in the 2026 season they've really embraced the gimmicks. Particularly the hybrid drive system which is now a 50:50 fuel:electric split. The way drivers are allowed to use the electric boost is really arbitrary and bears no relation to physics and engineering. For example they get more of a power by using certain areas of the track, like the outside of corners. They can only use their boost button in certain parts of the track. This bears all the same relation to the real, physical world as a video game like Mario Kart does.

That, of course, is similar to something which is happening in the Movie industry. It used to be that all the things you saw in movies, actors, sets, stunts, special effects had to physically exist. They had to be physically created in the real world. Increasingly now they just exist as Generative AI powered CGI. I gather "Frankenstein" (2025) got a lot of love this year for relying on the old school physical, mechanical approach.

Talking about F1 also allows you to discuss Totalitarian Capitalism. The 2026 race calender is basically a roll call of Totalitarian Capitalist States. One of the Producers of F1 (2025), Lewis Hamilton says he wants to race in Africa before he retires. F1 used to regularly race in South Africa during Apartheid. Then when Apartheid ended F1 felt the continent was no longer compatible with its values.

Of course Lewis Hamilton debuted his relationship with Kim Kardashian at The Super-Bowl 2026. Bringing all of that to his Movie. That relationship was something that was trailed extensively in the UK celebrity press in the weeks/month beforehand. I could tell it was trying to provoke a reaction from me. Although I couldn't figure out what reaction. I really hope it wasn't supposed to be jealousy.

F1 (2025) also features Damson Idris in the main supporting role. He played the lead in the TV Show; "Snowfall" (2017-2023). About how the CIA changed Los Angeles by creating the 1980's Crack Epidemic through Operation Condor/Charley.