What was the reaction to the Best Picture llneup in 1991?

The bigger controversy around SotL was the portrayal of Buffalo Bill

Inside Oscar also highlights Barbra Streisand's Director snub having a lot of media coverage and of course outcry from Spike Lee about Boyz n the Hood's BP snub and Jungle Fever getting nothing, but the main thing happening in 1991 was the ongoing AIDS crisis and LGBT representation. Different groups cited SotL and JFK as harmful and also Basic Instinct which was 1992 but released around the time of the ceremony so became part of the protests that took place at the red carpet. There was additional outcry over the snub of Paris is Burning in Documentary about NYC transvestite culture with the Doc chairman Sy Gomberg adding fuel to the fire by saying "Is this as important a subject as death on the job, or the conscience of the German officers? I don't think that drag queens can come anywhere near that in terms of importance."

I think there was mainly goodwill for Beauty and the Beast, people weren't so over Disney since it was part of their comeback/Renaissance. You can hear it in the nom announcement reaction, obviously. Katzenberg did a lot of campaigning to make people take it seriously. But Leonard Maltin said "Only in a year as mediocre as 1991 could this terrific film be nominated" and NY Daily News wrote "It's too bad it can't now give retroactive Oscars to the hundreds of Warner Bros. cartoons that are better than Beauty, an okay Disney film propelled by full-barrel Disney hype." Conservative, Christian etc audiences favored it on "family values" talking points (Michael Medved, critics like that). Of course it was extremely well-received in general.

Obviously with SotL there was also the violence but I think by the time of the ceremony, it was looking pretty good for it, even though BP was perceived as a fairly open race. Ebert predicted it saying "hundreds of people have mentioned it to me since it opened in February. They won't stop talking about it." Apparently there was a bizarre minor backlash when Demme won DGA as the only nominee broadcasting from New York and said "This will show them out there in La-La Land" and had to issue an apology?? Saying his words were "stupid" and "born of the hometown euphoric frenzy when a New Yorker actually gets the nod." I guess we've always been this sensitive.

And JFK had a lot of ~discourse~ from all sides lol but I think that maybe helped because it made everyone equally mad. Inside Oscar characterizes the earliest reviews as really bad but it started making 10 lists and it had box-office momentum, it was Ebert's #1 which was often influential, peak Oliver Stone relevance, and it was immediately generating actual legislative action as far as getting files released so it just became a hard movie to ignore however you felt about it.

There aren't many 1-2 punches in a year better than SotL and Beauty and the Beast. Bugsy is good too. JFK is paranoid delusional crap, albeit extremely well directed so it's still easy to see why it got in.

VERY weak year, but you replace the mediocre PoT with BOYZ N THE HOOD or THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE and you'd have EASILY one of the Top 3 BP line-ups of the decade. I have more movies from the 90's in my Top 100 than any other decade (30), but this was the only year where the Academy nominated 2 films that made my list (JFK is #33, SotL is #65).

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is a masterwork also. BUGSY isn't a great film, and yes there are at least 3 or 4 other films that deserved the nod more, but I'd still take it over 3 of the previous years BP nominees ("Ghost", "Godfather 3", and winner "Dances with Wolves"). Wonderful period gangster film with great supporting cast and GORGEOUS Cinematography/Production Design/Costumes.

I guess we have a different interpretation of the word "evidence", cuz I've seen PLENTY of evidence the CIA was involved.

The scenes you mentioned might have been "made up", but there 100% was a conspiracy. And the Donald Sutherland character "X" was a man named Fletcher Prouty, and his "testimony" is VERY convincing.

This is all true, but Disney burnt some bridges with Beauty and the Beast by giving out only 10 minute long highlight reels rather than to give the Academy members actual VHS screening copies.

Bugsy had the biggest campaign of the year, but some at the time felt that the insistent campaign hurt the film's chances.