In 1997, Danny Elfman’s original score for “Men In Black” was nominated for an Oscar, in the category of Best Original Score in a Comedy. Original music composed for the movie.

Also nominated was “The Full Monty” which featured a soundtrack, a selection of songs but not original music composed for the movie.

“The Full Monty” won the Oscar. That’s like the John Williams score for “Raiders of the Lost Ark” losing to the don’t you forget about me soundtrack for “The Breakfast Club.”

“The Full Monty” was the media darling of the year and the Academy wanted to find some way to give “The Full Monty” an Oscar, even if it wasn’t valid or earned. So a pop song soundtrack bested an original score in an Oscar category that recognizes an original score.

In 1997, I learned the Oscars are bullshit and easily manipulated, and where merit has nothing to do with winning. They don’t even follow their own rules. Beginning in 1997, my awareness of the Oscars as meaningless, illegitimate fluff is a constant.

As further proof of this, today Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire announced his groundbreaking, immensely popular documentary “Am I Racist?” didn’t make the cut for Oscar consideration in the documentary category. Walsh posted his notice to Facebook and X:

The Academy Awards announced the shortlist for documentaries. These are their top 15 films in the genre that will be whittled down to 5 nominees. “Am I Racist?” did not make the top 15 even though it is the highest grossing doc of the decade and easily the most talked about, most watched, and most influential documentary of this year. This is the outcome I expected, of course, but it doesn’t make it any less of a farce.

Matt Walsh, creative Mind and star of “Am I Racist?”

Walsh isn’t surprised, I’m not surprised, and anyone expending moral outrage on this predestined outcome does so needlessly. Hollywood is woke and it’s destroying the industry. Just ask Disney, Sony, and every other studio cooking up endless DEI goulash to splatter on the screen. Ask these studios about their woke messaging and ask these studios how that’s working out for them in box office dollars. In this woke creative habitat, of course “Am I Racist?” wouldn’t be nominated. “Am I Racist?” is profitable, popular, and predestined to be ignored by the woke Academy.

I’m not going to call this a “snub” because it’s no big loss, not getting an Oscar nod. The Academy is as meatless as the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to Obama for doing nothing. There is no prestige to either the Academy or Nobel.

The excellence of “Am I Racist?” doesn’t require woke validation. To wit, woke validation of a film is the death touch, if dwindling box office dollars for girl boss movies and DEI messaging cinema is the measure. As I see it, better to release a successful, enjoyable film than be recognized by the failure that is woke Hollywood. There’s no value getting a trophy from the referees of the losing team.