Musicals at the Oscars

Well the Oscars were a week ago, being a film fan they are like the Olympics for me, except that they last a night instead of a month, and even if you pay you cant go and watch, so the TV will have to do. Anne Hathaway obviously won big this year (check back for my opinion on this years Oscars as a whole) and a three song segment was presented showing musicals at the academy awards. Les Miserables is the first film to be nominated for best picture since Chicago won big a decade ago, with Dreamgirls being seriously snubbed in 2006, despite being in my opinion a seriously superior film to Les Miserables, despite the source musical being vastly inferior; Despite the academy being sometimes seen to be elitist, and by many to snub commercial films, for what many see to be 'art house' movies. However the academy does seem to recognise good performances in musicals, Johnny Depp's performance in Sweeney Todd, for which he was nominated, despite not being a trained singer, nor having a huge amount of singing ability, was nominated in 2007, and Jennifer Hudson, for whom it was an acting debut, for an American Idol alum. Given all these factors it seems that the academy seems to have somewhat love/hate relationship with musicals, Madonnas snub is evidence of this, although her golden globe winning performance was acclaimed by critics, the actress/singer failed to garner even a nomination. The academy's relationship with musicals remains to be sure, and only time will tell if the academy will continue to recognize musical films.