Surprised to see black panther nominated for best picture. I certainly liked it, but honestly if we are nominating movies for best picture just based on likability they should have nominated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse. It was my favorite movie of the year and was extremely creative artistically. My 2nd favorite of the year was “Eighth Grade” fwiw, but it doesn’t look like it was nominated for anything.
Re: Black Panther, I feel that there's a key distinction between "Important" and "Best."
Black Panther was a hugely significant movie, perhaps the most culturally significant movie of 2018.
Was it the best movie?
My opinion: Not even close.
I felt Eighth Grade, as an example, was a much more interesting and challenging movie, with impressive feats of writing and acting that Black Panther can't match.
Eighth Grade was unlike any movie I've ever seen, whereas Black Panther was similar to pretty much every Marvel movie I've seen.
That said, it's hard to argue that Eighth Grade meant more to our culture, or that it will be remembered five years from now, whereas Black Panther will be remembered and talked about for a long time.
For my part, I think "Best" should mean "Best." If you want to honor movies that have great cultural and political significance because of the subject matter or because of representation, then create a separate category for that.