Wings Is Soarin', Flyin',There's Not A Star In Heaven It Cannot Reach

This past Sunday, The Shape of Water became the ninetieth motion picture to win the Best Picture Oscar. The expansive group of film that have won this award over the years include everything from a Lord of The Rings movie to a musical adaptation of Oliver Twist to John Ford's How Green Was My Valley. Surprisingly, amongst the ninety movies, only two of them are silent films. One of them, The Artist, came out relatively recently in 2011 while you'll have to all the way back to the very first Academy Award ceremony to find the only other silent movie awarded the Best Picture ceremony. Yes, the very first Best Picture winner, Wings, is the only other silent movie besides The Artist to win this highly pretigious war.

This Week, The Oscars Demonstrated Extremely Troubling Regress

This week, perhaps the most notable and talked about snub (aside from The LEGO Movie bizarrely not getting into Best Animated Feature) was Ava Duvernay not getting into Best Director for her superb work in Selma. Many complained, noting that the Academy Awards had displayed sexist and racist tendencies in the past. Other retorted to this, stating 12 Years A Slave winning Best Picture last year eradicated any possibility of those voting for the awards demonstrating racist tendencies, while also noting that the Academy should focus on voting for quality films instead of looking to "fill some quota".