There is surely a smidgen of irony in the fact that an industry that sells entertainment, whose very name conjures up entertainment, cannot bring itself to make its annual awards show more entertaining. Hollywood's ritual of self-congratulation, otherwise known as the Oscar awards, has become the most boring show on the planet. This isn't about the low-rent stand-up-comedy patter that kicks off the evening, a clutch of insider jokes carefully calibrated so as to not really offend anyone in attendance. This is a harmless enough crime. The real offence is in the utter predictability of the prizes. Sitting through the three-and-a-half hours leading to the announcement for Best Picture has begun to feel like going through a 1000-page book when someone's already revealed the ending. Was anyone really surprised when The Artist, a slight but charming ode not just to silent cinema but to Hollywood itself, left its competition in the dust with five wins? (It won Best Picture, Actor, Director, Costume Design and Musical Score. Martin Scorsese's much-lauded Hugo, also harking back to silent cinema, equalled this count, but with a string of less-prestigious awards in the technical categories, including Best Cinematography and Visual Effects).
The problem lies with the interminable stretch of honours announced in what has come to be known as “awards season.” First, the various critics' circles, like the National Board of Review, have their ceremonies. By the end of these announcements, there is already some sense of consensus, and this is only confirmed by the Golden Globes (awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association) and the BAFTAs (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts). And what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences do, essentially, is stamp their seal of approval on these awards. About the only award that quivered with an iota of suspense was the one for Best Actress, where Viola Davis was expected to win for The Help. (Meryl Streep won, instead, for The Iron Lady.) Otherwise, it would have made no difference if they'd announced the list of winners earlier and the show had simply focused on their showing up to collect the trophies. Stifling one of many yawns, several viewers no doubt looked back fondly at the time Shakespeare in Love came out of nowhere to snatch the Best Picture trophy seen as belonging to Saving Private Ryan, or when Marisa Tomei won Best Supporting Actress for her flamboyantly comic turn in My Cousin Vinny, beating such luminaries as Vanessa Redgrave and Judy Davis. Were these upsets deserved? Perhaps not. But no one will deny that they made a stodgy evening a lot more interesting.
Keywords: Oscar awards, Hollywood, presentation ceremony, Golden Globes, BAFTAs
When Sofia Loren was about to announce the best foreign film in the year 1998, the crowd were cheering for Roberto Benigni so loud that it was quite obvious it would win the award. And didn’t we enjoy his win? His movie "Life is Beautiful" totally deserved all the Oscars it got. Unpredictability doesn’t exist when the movie is very well written and brilliantly shot. Same is what happened to "The Artist". For a French-silent movie to win the top honours, the movie must have something with it.The Oscars are not held just to provide surprises. It’s a platform where the whole film industry joins together as a family and gets a chance to be lauded for their hard work and effort for the art of film making. If surprises is what they wanted, they would have rather given an Academy Award to any of the American Pie series.
Was this year's Oscar Ceremony boring? NOT if you are a Pakistani. For Pakistanis this year's Oscars was the most exciting ever, because their own Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and her codirector Daniel Junge won their country's first ever Oscar for the documentary "Saving Face". This film is about the plastic British-Pakistani plastic surgeon Mohammad Jawad who treats women who have been attacked by acid, usually thrown on their faces. Oscars is not all about glamor (recall India's own documentary Oscar few years ago for "Smile Pinky" - a documentary on children with cleft lips). Thye make it a point to recognize some noble cause, particularly in a developing counry. One may argue they do this as a window dressing, but the recipients do not truly value the benefits of international recognition for their cause. In Pakistan the news of Oscars has been on the TV non-stop for days now.
I think Oscar award ceremony is purely to appreciate the hard work behind the spectacular cinema and not another entertainment show.If you think you are not getting enough excitement watching the oscar show then try a movie.
I fully agree with Hitesh's view that we in India don't have to pay any serious attention to Oscars. Also, I read a review of the winning movie, "The Artist", and thought the idea for the story was borrowed ("plagiarized"?) from Charlie Chaplin's "Limelight".
Every time when I read the editorial,I feel good because I get the other side of the coin.Regarding today's editorial its not very much interesting to the readers as Oscars are not being paid much attention in India.Although we watch Hollywood movies but why, only for entertainment purposes.We are not concerned about the prizes to be won.
The Oscars show lacked enthusiasm because of the drought of decent movies – 2011 was even worse than the year of the Slum Dog Millionaire (which won on the curiosity factor), when at least in India there was interest for obvious reasons. Only once in a long time there is a tough contest between blockbuster movies that are artistic and have a morality play. So what’s an MC to do with a clutch of obscure offerings that are not even in the same universe as past greats such as Gone With the Wind, Bridge on the River Kwai, The Ten Commandments, Psycho, Pather Panchali, Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Schindler’s list, Titanic, Avatar (breathtaking as it was, Avatar won neither the best picture nor the best director). With movies of that scale and vision, people anywhere can find The Awards entertaining. This is a metaphor for the larger stories in our lives -all our years are not exciting; may it's better that way..
“….has become the most boring show on the planet.” Bold !
Yes it all went the way the media wrote in length. One is constrained to believe whether the organizers felt a media pressure to judge the best the way media has propagated. In that race the organizers have fallen in line with them to acknowledge that the media was literally right thereby spoiling the required surprise of announcements?
I still do not think we in India have to pay any serious attention to Oscars. Oscar is meant for movies made by western directors for western audience soaked in western culture. Concept of movie is totally different in India. We might learn many thing from hollywood movies but still we have our own cultural needs and expectations in harmony with day to day real life. Without knowing a foreign culture completely, it is difficult to appreciate and understand movies from a different cultures too. I am appalled to see a editorial on such a small issue. A complete waste of superfine editorial mind and time on such a trivial issue.
Entertainment for entertainment's sake is what the author is asking for. I think the
author is confusing Oscar Awards night with the tamasha that goes on in India in
the name of award ceremonies. Big song sequence between every two awards ... I
cannot but be reminded of the long and boring exchange one of these shows had
recently between Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit in the name of being cheeky. I
believe the pace of this Oscar show was good, the humor was clean, the award recipients' speeches were relatable, the entertainment was awe inspiring, the remembrances were poignant; The awards though arguable, were not jaw dropingly
illogical. The "interminable stretch of honours announced" are not watched by the
public at large. So if for you as a media person, it is too much may be next year please sit back and watch the show at the end of the "awards season" like the real people who read this column.
Please Email the Editor