Oscars 2024: Should the Academy Awards do more to recognise comedy in cinema, as Poor Things misses out on best picture gong?

Poor Things loses out for best picture honour

It is more than just a quirk of the calendar that the Glasgow Film Festival coincides with the Academy Awards ceremony.

The Scottish celebration of cinema traditionally wrap up just as the Oscars are getting underway. Glasgow's extended celebration of cinema provides round-the-clock red carpet moments and reminders of the magic of film in the countdown to Hollywood’s biggest night – not least the special atmosphere that can be created in a packed cinema auditorium.

There has been much more Oscars interest from Glasgow, of course, with the adaptation of the late Alasdair Gray’s novel Poor Things landing a whopping 11 nominations and winning four Academy Awards, including Emma Stone, for her performance as Bella Baxter.

Poor Things star Emma Stone attends the 96th Annual Academy Awards. Picture: AFP via Getty Images

Thousands of words have been written in Scotland about the rights and wrongs of director Yorgos Lanthimos’ version of Gray’s 1992 novel, particularly his relocation of the author’s story from Glasgow to London.

There has been a lot less focus on how Poor Things has been so difficult to classify. But seeing an early preview in a packed Glasgow Film Theatre left me in no doubt it was a comedy – albeit a sex comedy, a gothic comedy and a science-fiction comedy all wrapped into one.

While Stone was one of the big Academy Award winners, Poor Things losing out to Oppenheimer in the best picture category does revive the question of whether the odds are stacked against comedy at the Oscars.

My initial thought is the Oscars are too po-faced to be interested enough in comedy, particularly given their steadfast refusal to have a separate category for best musical or comedy. But closer inspection of the best picture winners from the past 25 years suggests a slightly different story.

Emma Stone plays Bella Baxter in Poor Things. Picture: Searchlight Pictures/Yorgos Lanthimos.

Shakespeare in Love, American Beauty, The Artist, Birdman, Moonlight, Green Book, Coda and last year’s winner – Everything Everywhere All at Once – have enough comedy elements for them to count for me. It is musicals that have really struggled to make an impact since Chicago’s success 22 years ago.

It is now 23 years since the Oscars instigated a separate category for best animated feature and 72 years since the Golden Globes instigated its best musical or comedy award. A new category reflecting two of the greatest forms of entertainment seems worthy of at least some consideration.