Are the Oscars Anti-Teen?

Teen movies may rule at the box office, but not with the Academy

Fans of teen films can save themselves a road trip to Hollywood for the 73rd annual Academy Awards on Sunday, March 25. Art-house films like Pollock and Billy Elliot and non-blockbusters like Chocolat and The Contender filled out the major nominations. Hip, contemporary, younger-leaning movies were shut out of the Best Picture race, and the acting categories were almost entirely without teen-friendly faces. Kate Hudson, age 21, picked up a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Almost Famous, but that was about it.

Why such slim representation? Well, you have to start by looking at what was out there. Last year's teen crop was not a particularly good one. Down to You amounted to a schlocky paint-by-the-numbers romance. Bring It On was a cheerleader flick that used a skimpy plot to justify even skimpier outfits. In Road Trip, well, Tom Green put a mouse in his mouth. And those were some of the better offerings.

Even if the field of teen flicks had been stronger in 2000, it likely wouldn't have mattered. The average age of the 5,607 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is over 50, and it's a safe bet that most of them still haven't seen She's All That, or any movie with Freddie Prinze Jr. or Rachael Leigh Cook, for that matter. Teen films are just not on their radar.

FILMS FOR OLDER FOLKS

The Academy voters, like anyone else, are more likely to see films that fit their own age group and interests. Since they're all involved with the film industry, they tend to recognize more high-concept artistic movies outside the mainstream, the ones playing at the small theater downtown rather than the multiplex at the mall. As a result, a poll by the Los Angeles Times conducted before last year's Oscars found that only 1 percent of Americans had seen all five Best Picture nominees. A few major hits still end up on ballots, including Gladiator and Erin Brockovich this year, but they have to earn critical kudos, not just multimillions.

The acting categories also favor the older generation. A study released last year by Pace University found that the average age of Best Actor nominees during the past 25 years was 45.6 years. Best actresses? 40.3. Teen films can be well-acted, but their casts are young and stocked with newcomers. Just as you may never have seen a movie with Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush, up again for Best Actor in Quills, many Academy voters still don't know Jason Biggs, who had three acting credits on his rdsum6 before 1999's American Pie, and two of those were on TV. Biggs and American Pie took in more than $100 million at the box office, lint they took in nothing at the Oscars.

INFLUENCING THE OSCARS

Teens do have clout at the Academy Awards, though, because they rule the box office. The Motion Picture Association of America reported last year that 12- to 24-year-olds accounted for a whopping 38 percent of theater admissions. Th at economic power affects a film's profile, even it' it's still not enough to nab Freddie Prinze Jr. an Oscar nomination. Teen ticket-buying, and repeat trips to one movie, can give a film targeted at a more general audience the kinds et: box-office numbers and buzz that guarantee Academy members will watch it.

The best example this year is Gladiator. The action-drenched pic's popularity among teens helped it rack up about $200 million and major buzz. It's now nominated for 12 Oscars. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, going against Gladiator for Best Picture, has also benefitted big time by appealing to teens hooked on Matrix-style fighting.

Titanic of course, was the rare teen oriented movie that crossed over to success at the Academy Awards. Repeat business from teens helped turn the 1997 Best Picture winner into one of the biggest movies in history.

Titanic is also an example of how welt a teen film can work, going beyond the genre to attract a cross-generational audience. With Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet playing romantic leads, it is undoubtedly a classic product of the teen dream machine. But it's also a sweeping, big-budget historical drama with real-life tragedy at its core to lend it heft in the spirit of Best Picture epics from Gone With the Wind in 1939 to Braveheart in 1995.

That bodes well for Gladiator at this year's Oscars, but it means that Bring It On will have to wait until the MTV Movie Awards for a chance to pick up any statues. Teen movies will almost always remain on the sideline because they aren't about Oscars, they're all about the money. Road Trip is a low-budget $15 million movie that earned $67 million at the box office, a success. The low-budget You Can Count on Me, Quills, and The Contender are making pennies by comparison, but they'll be successes if they earn Academy Awards.

Teens are a driving force in movies on Saturday night, just not Oscar night.