True but the whole backlash will be in the form of it simply being an international film. The whole concept that an international film can't win Best Picture is beyond insane and just completely illogical but if you read that idiotic voting rationale posted earlier in this thread, it's definitely something that exists.
I feel confident that it will be one of Hollywood, Parasite or 1917. 1917 would just feel like such a strange winner to me because it's really not saying anything at all and it's just a technical feat. I guess it's safe though.
I think Parasite would be a lock if it didn't have that international stigma, but that's such a huge obstacle to overcome. I'd be really interested to see where Roma finished last year. Realistically it was between that and Green Book so it would be interesting to see how many left Roma off or ranked it really low just because it was an international movie. I guess it had the whole Netflix stigma as well though.
Ultimately I just think that while Hollywood has a lot of backlash relative to the others, it's still safe enough to pick as Best Picture. It has the whole "about Hollywood" thing going for it as well as the whole "due" narrative for Tarantino.
The Artist was a French film and won Best Picture 9 years ago. It was
not nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category because, obviously, there was no language in it (save one word at the end). I think that that's the bigger issue, not a "stigma." The Academy voters may be hesitant to award a foreign film Best Picture
and Best Foreign Language Film. The latter gives them an opportunity to award two films instead of one.
It'd likely be the same if there were, say, a Best Historical Drama Film category. 1917 would be a lock for that and another film, like Marriage Story or Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, might win Best Picture. That wouldn't seem fair to 1917 and it doesn't seem fair to foreign films, but that's the system and human behavior.
I think that, if you really want to open up Best Picture to foreign films, you should advocate for eliminating the Best Foreign Language Film category. In fact, there could be an argument that it's not really even necessary any more. Back when only 5 films were nominated for Best Picture, foreign films really needed their own category to get any recognition. Now, though, the Best Picture category can have up to 10 films and quite a few foreign films have made the list since.
