In March 2014, actor and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres hosted the 86th Academy Awards, or the Oscars, and clicked a selfie where she posed with some of the best-known actors on the planet: Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Angelina Jolie et al. The photo became the most retweeted image in existence within an hour of posting on Twitter, eventually racking up over 3.4 million retweets. The telecast on ABC drew in an average of 43.7 million viewers over its duration, becoming the second most-watched Oscars show in the 21st century (behind the 2000 ceremony).
For all the history made over a single evening, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which presents the Oscars, and its contemporaries have had a difficult decade since. Questions of fairness, diversity and representation, not to mention falling viewership, have cast a shadow on the relevance of movie awards in the age of social media. TV ratings have continued to fall steadily, with the 2023 Oscars reaching only 18.7 million viewers, less than half of the 2014 high point. However, 2023 saw audiences returning to cinema halls in a big way. This was as much a reversal of pandemic-era shortfalls as it was a result of marketing campaigns such as ‘Barbenheimer’ that promoted the year’s biggest blockbusters — Barbie and Oppenheimer — as a double-bill.
This year’s movie awards ceremonies, coming right after the two big Hollywood strikes last year, have had to rethink their broadcast strategy and stay up-to-date. The 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards, for instance, was the first to stream live on Netflix. From the Golden Globes to the Emmys, they are all shorter now. In both 2017 and 2018, the Oscars show was nearly four hours long. In recent years, this runtime has been trimmed by almost 30 minutes. One workaround that helps reduce runtime is the pre-ceremony red carpet show — the Oscars now have an hour-long red carpet that diehard movie fans and celeb-watchers can tune into, while the more time-strapped viewers can join in when the main ceremony starts. The Oscars have also taken the somewhat controversial decision of excluding a bunch of technical awards from the main ceremony — the winners receive their awards privately before the televised show starts.
Actors Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway revisit their 2006 film, ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, at the Screen Actors Guild Awards held last month. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Changed audiences
The awards season in 2024 so far hasn’t been without its share of drama. For instance, the Golden Globes underwent a churn unprecedented in its history. Basically, the old voting body, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, was dissolved, and a few of its new members threatened to withhold final-round votes because they were told they wouldn’t be given tickets to the ceremony. A new Golden Globe for ‘Cinematic and Box Office Achievement’ was instated, with Barbie emerging as the first-ever winner.
The BAFTAs (British Academy Film Awards), in comparison, came and went with nary a whimper — no upsets, not much drama, and along expected lines, Oppenheimer swept all the major awards, including Best Film and Best Director. The British press swooned over Deepika Padukone’s red carpet look (in a Sabyasachi sari), and for a bit, it felt like order was being restored to the awards season.
“Viewing habits have changed significantly over the last decade or so. Earlier, people would time their day’s routine to watch the live telecast of the film awards they followed. Now we’re seeing on our platform a lot of people who watch the awards the same day, but not during American hours,” explains Anushree Bhardwaj, Director (Marketing), Lionsgate Southeast Asia. Lionsgate Play holds exclusive live and streaming rights in India for the Emmys, Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards and BAFTAs. “Viewers watch when it’s convenient for them, so I would say it is a combination of ‘appointment viewing’ and streaming-on-demand. The increased familiarity with American TV shows that streaming has brought about also helps.”
While there are multiple factors behind the popularity of any awards show, Bhardwaj says the involvement of Indian celebrities is a big draw. “When we announced Deepika Padukone as one of the presenters at BAFTA this year, our engagement went through the roof,” she continues. “If you want to make your show more relevant to, say, Gen Z, you will have to involve the right celebrities for that demographic. Young people will have that connect with Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber, that folks from an earlier generation would have with Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts.”
(L to R) Singer-actor Selena Gomez, and actors Ryan Gosling and Deepika Padukone on the red carpet at this year’s movie awards. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Newer award categories
The award categories themselves have also changed over the years. In 2001, the Oscars added the Best Animated Film category, which has proven to be a popular move in the years since.
A common criticism of the Oscars is that they are reluctant to honour mainstream blockbusters. To address this, the Academy proposed adding a Best Popular Film category in 2018 but the idea was “postponed” . Till date, the proposal hasn’t resurfaced. Earlier this month it was announced that from 2026, the Oscars will add a new award for achievement in casting. Lobbying efforts are underway to honour stunt coordinators as well, with John Wick director Chad Stahelski among the prominent voices throwing their weight behind the idea.
A major attraction for TV audiences are the performances. I remember when, in 2009, it was first reported that musician A.R. Rahman would perform at the Oscars, there was a lot of buzz in the Indian media. You could tell that Indian viewers were waiting to watch the show just for Rahman (besides rooting for Slumdog Millionaire).
That was the era, of course, when “appointment viewing”, i.e. masses of people watching something at the exact same time, was still a thing. Oscar diehards still talk about Hugh Jackman’s outstanding musical number from that year because it really was TV gold — celebrities playing the fool and parodying themselves. And the Academy does recognise the sway star performances hold; it was reported earlier this week that after several rounds of negotiations, Ryan Gosling had agreed to perform ‘I’m Just Ken’ from Barbie at this year’s Oscars.
The director and main cast of ‘Poor Things’ at the Golden Globe Awards in January. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
The diversity strategy
Another major shift in the way film awards conduct their business has been in the push for diversity. Last December, the Golden Globes reported a revamping of their voter base with 47% female and 60% racially/ethnically non-white members. Non-English films can now compete for Best Drama, with Anatomy of a Fall (French) and Past Lives (Korean) making the cut this year.
Back in 2020, the Oscars released a 1,000-page memo that underlined their new inclusion standards for Best Picture hopefuls: in order to be eligible, they had to fulfil two out of four broad criteria groups. For instance, the eligibility standard around technical staff says, ‘At least two of the following creative leadership positions and department heads — Casting Director, Cinematographer, Composer... Writer — are from an under-represented group and at least one of those positions must belong to someone from an under-represented racial or ethnic group.’
It’s debatable whether these strategies will immediately translate to a larger audience pool, but it shows at least that the Academy is listening to criticism of its methods. The same could be said of the Golden Globes, Emmys or BAFTAs. Practically every awards show now engages social media influencers to conduct red carpet interviews and sell the elaborate affair to younger audiences globally. The SAG Awards had fashion expert Tan France interview winners backstage, and winning speeches were not cut short.
Come March 11, the Oscars will get another shot at redeeming themselves. Will Oppenheimer sweep the night again or will critical darlings such as The Holdovers or The Zone of Interest scoop up the top awards? With her standout performance in Killers of the Flower Moon, will Best Actress nominee Lily Gladstone become the first Native American to win an Oscar? While it’s fun to speculate about questions like these, the perceived unfairness/ incompetence of Oscar voters isn’t really why the TV ratings have fallen in recent years. The real reason is a combination of changing demographics, waning celebrity-power and a reluctance on the Academy’s part to transform with time. Luckily, steps are being taken to address these issues, with the hope that people return to the good ol’ days when they’d arrange their lives around a Globes or Oscars TV broadcast.
The writer and journalist is working on his first book of non-fiction.
