Since 2009, when the Academy changed Best Picture from a straight popular vote to something much more convoluted (ostensibly to more accurately reflect the Academy's consensus), the winners have gotten much more self-congratulatory.
In the video above, Todd VanDerWerff helps me explain that the instant runoff system tends to honor "consensus" films that are often ranked second or third on voters' ballots, rather than films that are polarizing — but often more daring — and rank first on some ballots but dead last on others.
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