My heroes are our military members- so I don't get all excited to see what awards the hollywood entertainers award themselves.
The movies may well be the greatest movies ever made, however the fact that I have never heard of one of them tells me they are not great art, or pivotal works which will help shape our society.
If I saw them I might agree they were cute, fun and enterataining- but I can tell you I wouldn't think they were great works of original art made and developed by heroes. The fact that The Passion of the Christ was not nominated tells me something.
Apparently the ticket buyers felt differently than the Hollywood set- but then again most fluffy folks in hollywood think most Americans are the little, ignorant people.
My problem withe much of the complaints is that everyone seems upset that has chosen to honor these films and not others, that Hollywood is out of touch, etc.
The Oscars, as are the Emmys, Tonys and Grammys, awards given from within each industry, just like Free Republic honors its own each year. Nobody ever said they were anything else, and making more of these awards than that to me is foolish (which I don't believe you have done).
I taught Art Appreciation course for a few years, so I too find great joy in seeing masterpieces--both old and new. My background is in Theater and English Literatur, but my father was on the Michigan Art council for years, and I grew up going to art galleries.
I look at motion pictures, for the most part, as just another form of art but in a different medium, like oils differ from pastels or watercolors, or sculpture differs from painting. All have their inate value, and of course, some works are better than others.
Perhaps a comparison can be made here as to why Passion of the Christ didn't make it. Leonardo painted both the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, but most critics would point toward the latter as being the better work.