Remember when the Oscars was exciting? Remember when there was always some sort of anticipation to see which one of the truly best movies of the year was gonna take home the big prize? Remember when this was always the next big tv event to look forward just right after the Super Bowl? Those were certainly the days, weren’t they?! Nowadays, watching the Oscars feels more like an obligation than a special event to look forward to, like the equivalent of going to your cousin’s high school graduation or something, just something you just got to muster up and get over with. It seems like the only reason to watch the Oscars now in the hopes that something completely and utterly embarrassing will happen live on tv, waiting for that one star to trip on their face or for that one La La Land moment!
There are many reasons as to why the Oscars has gotten real stale over the years and why it continues to decline in ratings. And not it’s not for the reason what those MAGA folks would claim about it being too “woke”, it’s because of how predictable, cringe, and just plain dull it has become. Nearly every year we know the outcome of what movie is gonna win in each category. We know the best animated film will go to whatever is the most popular Disney film of the year, we know the best short film will go to whatever one is made by Pixar, we know the best song will go to whatever one is the biggest hit on iTunes and the one that kids can’t stop humming, we know the best visual effects will go to whatever big blockbuster was released that year, and we know the best picture will go to the one that has the biggest “message” regardless if the movie itself actually tells that message well. Sure, there are always a few exceptions where there’s actual shock and the Academy does actually pick the best movies for a big category like say Parasite (insert angry redneck Joker fanboy), but for the most part, it’s as on autopilot and by-the-numbers as it goes.
You would think the solution to those problems would be rather simple. Solutions such as shaking up the categories at bit, add categories that are more important, give room for more foreign films, allow actual great blockbusters (or even actual great films) onto other categories instead of technical achievements, cut down on forced gags/virtue signaling, make the awards assessable through streaming services, and stop trying to set some big award winner reveal up unless you are 100% sure you know who’s going to win (like the non-ending to last year’s Academy Awards). The ideas are right there in front of you, Academy and yet you never uses them. It’s the equivalent of watching someone poorly build a puzzle that you already know where all the pieces go. And if the recent news about this year’s Oscar is anything to go by, that frustration will continue to be exploited.
It was reported earlier this week that this year’s Oscars will have exactly eight awards that will NOT be telecast live. These awards include for best documentary short, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, production design, animated short, live-action short, and sound. These awards are to be presented inside the Dolby Theatre an hour before the actual live awards show, recorded and edited into a separate broadcast. Again, this is the actually Academy Awards we are talking about here. This isn’t the Kids Choice Awards mind you where the winners of less important certain categories are revealed in the blink of an eye, this is the Academy Awards! The award show that is suppose to award those with the best filmmaking all year long is not going to give the chance to eight lucky groups to feel proud of themselves live on air. Groups filled with constant creative talents who worked countless hours, weeks, and months, and poured their absolute blood, sweat, and tears into making something special to get that golden trophy. Those deeply unfortunate groups will not get a chance at expressing their gratitude and deliver an acceptance speech live on television. That is wrong for so many reasons!
It’s blatantly obvious that the sole reason for this unnecessary change is to cater towards the audience outside of film critics, movie lovers, and filmmakers. An audience that don’t care for the artistic integrity of films, an audience that complains how “boring” the Oscars are because of how “slow” it is, an audience that doesn’t realize the maximum amount of effort that goes with important things with film such as editing, sound mixing, cinematography, score, etc.. In the Academy’s mind, their biggest problem lies more on the awards shows “pacing” than actually present films and categories that are actually worth a damn. Not only does this show the Academy not actually knowing their audience both outside and the inside, but they don’t actually know themselves either.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to appeal to an outside demographic but it should not come at the expense of alienating the one demographic that you are currently focused on. The way to do this is not by removing main elements that you have grown accustom to, but by adding MORE elements and EXPANDING upon them in new, interesting, and exciting ways. It’s then you are able to attract not just your current audience but new audience that will make them want to tune in each year to see if some of their favorite films of the year will win an award. Removing certain categories from the live event will not get people’s attention, it will only take away from it.
Why do feel the need to punish those involved with important parts of filmmaking that perhaps may not be consider as important just because of a couple of dudebros on the internet going on about how no one cares about the sound editing of a movie or some dumb crap? Doesn’t that defeat the sole purpose of the Oscars and go against what the Academy claims to be celebrating diversity? You are willing to not let a group of talented women, blacks, foreign, lgbtq+, etc. express their absolute gratitude and privilege to be able to hold this special award in the palm of their hands just for the sake of pacing and length. The Academy and Rob Manfred should get together for some coffee, they would CERTAINLY get along flawlessly.
And this is not even going into how the other way the Academy is attempting to appeal to the outside masses by included a Top “Fan-Voted” Film through Twitter that will get a recognition. Instead of just like, you known, presenting a completely new category for these kind of mainstream films. The one that people actually supported like say No Time To Die or Spider-Man: No Way Home. But, nope, instead one particular “fan favorite” flick will get some sort of shootout all because it will be one that just happened to have enough hashtags for a certain number of time. At least, we might be able to get our La La Land moment this year when James Corden gets a special mention for that shitty Cinderella that came out this year. That is if the Snyder cult happened to accidentally spill milk all over their computers while constantly spamming Zack Snyder’ Justice League and Army of the Dead a hundred times per hour for the next two weeks.
If the Academy want to keep the Oscars relevant, then they better find new inventive ways to get people’s attention and make them want to tune into the Oscars every year. Not removing certain award presentations because they are not quite as focused on as others or giving a certain movie fandom on a pat on the back for having too much free time on Twitter. The news this week of what will come with this year’s Oscars shows how clueless are towards their own audience and the outside audience they are trying to appease. This isn’t fixing what’s broken, it’s breaking what was never broken in the first place.
Regardless, the Academy will present the Oscars for the Best Films of 2021 on March 27th at 7 PM CT!
Here’s a link to an article that dives more into this topic: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/oscars-several-awards-wont-be-telecast-live-this-year-exclusive-1235097888/
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