Black Panther to compete for Best Picture award, not Popular Picture at Oscar

Chadwick Boseman has said that his superhero film "Black Panther" will be vying for the Best Picture Oscar at the next year's Academy Awards instead of the newly introduced Popular Film award.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter's 'Awards Chatter' podcast, said the 40-year-old actor said at the moment there is no award campaign for the film, but he insisted that they would compete for the Best Picture and not Popular Picture.

"We don't know what it (the new prize) is, so I don't know whether to be happy about it or not," Boseman said.

"What I can say is that there's no campaign (that we are mounting) for the popular film; like, if there's a campaign, it's for best picture, and that's all there is to it," he added.

Earlier this month, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' (AMPAS) board of governors had approved some major changes to the Oscars' format, including shortening the length of the ceremony and introducing a new category for outstanding achievement in popular film.

The new award category will help include major box office draws that fail to get nominated or awarded in the main category.

Boseman said a good movie is a good movie and its box office collection does not make it any better or worse.

"It doesn't matter how much money a movie makes in order for it to be 'a good movie' because if (it did), the movies that get nominated and win (which have tended in recent years to not be blockbusters) wouldn't get nominated; and if it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter on both sides. For my money, the only thing that matters is the level of difficulty," the actor said.

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