thefilmstage:

I don’t know how much I want to look to Oscars as a marker. I mean, we can talk about the world of the Oscars, but it’s a limited domain that I think reflects back on itself perhaps more than it once did, and doesn’t necessarily define where our culture is. And so it’s kind of playing catch-up to the culture all the time. It doesn’t mean we don’t look to those kinds of designators as placeholders in our progress as a culture – what’s permissible, what’s commendable, what’s meaningful – but as we all know the Oscars do not define what great movies are. There’s way too many examples of films that have had no relevance to the Oscars whatsoever that are the true – like, the Velvet Underground is an example of a musical band that had so much influence but had almost no commercial visibility at the time. I mean, it had no commercial visibility at the time, but the way influences are marked is a whole different kind of narrative or history. So yes, it’s one way of looking at a kind of progression of visibility.

Todd Haynes on campaigning for Carol and the historical appeal of Wonderstruck.