M+E Connections

As the 96^th Academy Awards on March 10 get closer, Gracenote decided to use its Video Descriptor metadata to see if the 136 movies nominated for the Best Picture Oscar over the past 15 years shared certain characteristics, the Nielsen division said Feb. 27.

The films that tend to win the Best Picture Oscar are serious dramas. But Gracenote wanted to see if all the nominees for that award had similar traits also, especially the same moods.

What the company’s analysis found was that 82% of the Best Picture Oscar nominees since 2010 have been “emotional,” “fun,” “powerful” or “tense” – just four of the possible 17 at the top of Gracenote’s mood hierarchy, it said.

“Among other characteristics, the taxonomy of Gracenote Video Descriptors cover 294 different Video Moods organized hierarchically from broad, high-level concepts (Level 1) to more granular, specific concepts (Level 4),” Gracenote said. As an example, it said, “under the broad L1 mood descriptor of ‘fun’ sits ‘quirky,’ one of 22 more granular mood descriptors.”

Gracenote “ascribes progressively granular descriptors to movies and TV shows to provide the clearest understanding of their makeup across multiple dimensions,” it said. “The hierarchical nature of the taxonomy also enables comparing and contrasting content through the corresponding broader, higher-level parent descriptors.”

For 2024, nine of the 10 Best Picture Oscar nominees’ most important moods come from within one of the four mood groups cited by Gracenote.

The one exception is Poor Things, whose main mood can be described as “wondrous” and is classified under “fantastic” by Gracenote’s taxonomy, it said.

“Powerful” movies have been the most popular nominees for Best Picture during the past 15 years, Gracenote noted.

This year, the “epic,” “gripping” Oppenheimer, the “compelling” Killers of the Flower Moon and the “uplifting” Past Lives are all classsified as “powerful” nominees this year.

Past Lives also has a “romantic” mood and is therefore the only one of this year’s nominees with one of the eight calmer L1 moods amongst its primary descriptions.

Only 26% of nominees for Best Picture in the past 10 years had one of the eight calmer L1 moods among their most significant features:  “heartwarming,” “thoughtful,” “introspective,” “mysterious, “upbeat,” “romantic,” “serious” or “dark,”  according to Gracenote’s analysis.

From 2005 to 2014, 42% of Best Picture Oscar nominees had one of the primary L1 moods.

American Fiction, Barbie and The Holdovers are this year’s “fun” nominees. All three are either “satirical,” ‘hilarious” or both, according to Gracenote.

Meanwhille, the “moving” Maestro and ‘”somber” The Zone of Interest both have “emotional” moods. The Zone of Interest, like Killers of the Flower Moon, also has a “frightening” mood amongst its most important.

“Frightening” moods are unusual among Best Picture Oscar nominees. Since 2010, the only “frightening” Best Picture nominees before this year’s pair were the “terrifying” Get Out (2017) and the “brutal” 127 Hours (2011), the company pointed out.

Rounding out this year’s Best Picture nominees are the “tense” Anatomy of a Fall and “fantastic” Poor Things, Gracenote said.

No Best Picture Oscar nominee has ever had a primary mood that falls into the “sensual” group, the company said.