I mean, Literature has one and it's not even an Art (as defined in Hegel's AESTHETICS, which is how these "Arts" are classified).

If there was one, who should get it this year ?

I'm OK with that, but I thought the Nobel Prize was originally supposed to be for something new during a year, but almost all the Prizes are awarded for things which occurred decades ago. What are they gonna do? Give out posthumous prizes to Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston?

quote:

Originally posted by mark f:
I'm OK with that, but I thought the Nobel Prize was originally supposed to be for something new during a year, but almost all the Prizes are awarded for things which occurred decades ago. What are they gonna do? Give out posthumous prizes to Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston?

I'm not sure about other Nobel Prizes, but it's fairly well established that the Prize in Economics (the only prize in the human sciences and one of the more controversial prizes) is NEVER given for work done in a certain year, but is always based on a body of work. There are exceptions, but it seems to hold true. Ronald Coase didn't win his until years after his seminal paper on social cost was published. Doug North's work on institutions predated his award by at least a decade. And so on...

I'm not sure what a Nobel Prize in film would amount to. Would it be for best addition to the filmic canon in a year? Would it go to a director? Lead actor? Writer? Studio? I'm not sure what to say.

To mark f:

Well, no: they would give it to a living person for his/her body of work. Isn't that how the Nobel works ? (thanx philosopherEric)[/LIST]

To philosopherEric:

Yes, it could be for "best addition to the filmic canon" or for something else: for not complying with the filmic canon to start with...

It could go to any of the areas you mentioned as they're all a part of film production.[/LIST]

I'm of the opinion that a Nobel Prize for filmmaking would be ridiculous considering the flim industry already has the Academy Awards, Sundance Awards (For the Independents), and various other awards ceremonies. The addition of a Nobel Prize for "the 7th Art", even though filmmaking deserves it, is very unnecessary.

First of all it's a strange idea. Why should they do that at all, it just doesn't make any sense.
But if a prize would be given within the movies it should be for the same reason that the prize in literature is given and that is “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”

Some facts about the Nobel Prize:
The Nobel Prize is given out in five categories Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace. The reason for those categories is that those are the categories in Alfred Nobel’s will from 1895. The prize in economics is actually The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, so that prize is somewhat different.
The Nobel Prizes can only be given to persons that are alive. This is what Alfred Nobel’s will sad about it: "...the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind." "...one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
”The provision in the will that the annual award of prizes shall be intended for works "during the preceding year" should be understood in the sense that the awards shall be made for the most recent achievements in the fields of culture referred to in the will and for older works only if their significance has not become apparent until recently."

quote:

Originally posted by manglarn:

First of all it's a strange idea. Why should they do that at all, it just doesn't make any sense.

Strange ? No sense ? why do you say so ??????

Please know (if you don't already) that there actually is a prize like that, named Polar Music Prize (the virtual Nobel for Music).

Not only that, the Pritzker Prize is called "the architecture's Nobel".

Nothing strange in having a music prize, what I meant was it didn't make sense to have a Nobel Prize in it. There are others giving out prizes for music and there are reasons why the Nobel Prize categories are as they are.

There is nothing strange about that other awards are referred to as the Nobel Prize of …. The Nobel Prize is the most prestigious award and of course if you want to say that an award is important you refer to it as The Nobel Prize of…. When it comes to The Polar Prize there is also the fact that it’s a Swedish prize and the prize is given to you by the Swedish king, just as The Nobel Prize. Also it is The Royal Swedish Academy of Music that hands it out which is reminiscent of who gives out The Nobel Prize.

But that wasn't my point with my post. I just thought I would clarify some things that seemed to be unclear about The Nobel Prize in the earlier posts and also what the criteria probably would be to receive the prize.

I think the only thing "strange" about a Nobel prize in film, music, or whatever is how rigidly you define "Nobel Prize."

Manglarn accurately points out that there are only 5 official Nobel prizes...but the general public doesn't generally know that the economics prize (which many economists consider as much of a sham award as a Grammy!) isn't an official "Nobel" prize.

I don't know much about film awards...but a universal film award could be a really interesting way of recognizing the best films of any given year (particularly films NOT made by major US studios who can buy their Academy Awards) and maybe to provide some sort of lifetime achievement award for directors whose body of work needs recognition.