"Awards season is trying to kill me," a paranoid confession.
Sunday, February 3, 2019 at 11:53PM 
by Nathaniel R
You guys. WHAT is happening? Not to sound paranoid but award season is trying to kill me. Day after day things worsen. Am I inside a Black Mirror episode through the use of some technology I wasn't even aware of? Or have I fallen through a rabbit hole to an alternate dimension where all obsessions curdle in on themselves to become one's worst fears? Are you also experiencing this nightmare with me? Please tell me it's not all in my own head.
The film year started out so well...
Though we didn't get our Oscar wishes last season it was hard to gripe too much about The Shape of Water taking multiple prizes when it was such an atypical Oscar choice and from a respected auteur with an original voice. The acting awards were similarly okay but not great but it's hard to complain when all four winners have been such consistent dynamos onscreen for years. And there were other signs that the year ahead would be a giddy fantasy come true...
The wonderful trans drama A Fantastic Woman won Best Foreign Film and just two months later its amazing Chilean director Sebastian Lelio was back in movie theaters with an even better movie (Disobedience). Many fine films emerged in the spring and summer (Tully, Paddington 2, Hereditary, Eighth Grade, BlacKkKlansman). Films that the public went absolutely bonkers for in the first 3/4ths of the year were, by and large, strong quality popcorn entertainments (Incredibles 2, A Star is Born, Black Panther) but sometime in November, things went completely haywire and we're now living in a nightmare world where a messy homophobic biopic with a casual relationship to truth that barely survived its production nightmares surrounding its famously and frequently alleged sexual predator director is considered to have the year's best editing (ACE EDDIE AWARD WIN. what the what now?) and best acting (SAG BEST ACTOR) for Rami Malek's lipsynching and wearing of false teeth.
Meanwhile Bradley Cooper, one of the world's finest leading men and most talented actors, made like Warren Beatty and did everything for his movie and then some (directing, acting, writing, producing, songwriting, singing, guitar playing, acting coachery -- oh come on you know he did that, too, for novice Gaga) and gifted the world with a really popular blockbuster romantic drama which Hollywood has now refused to hand even a single trophy to beyond trophies for its signature song "Shallow". All this despite it being Cooper's best performance ever that's up against relatively weak competition in the form of lipsynching mimicry from someone in a bad film and prosthetic mimicry from a strong actor who has already won but is hardly giving one of his very best star turns and letting his Batman voice sneak in a bit.
Not that there weren't warning signs that a personally hurtful but public apocalypse was coming. Oscar's popular film announcement fiasco revealed all of the Academy's self-destructive worst instincts. So did their repeated insistence that only Kevin Hart would do as a celebrity to hand the world stage to --as if there aren't dozens upon dozens of funny, famous, movie-loving celebrities in the world, who have never joked about beating up gay kids. The worst news of all, though less glamorous for the media to cover, was that the Oscar governing body had decided that the problem with the #1 most popular awards ceremony in the world which happens to be about honoring filmmaking was that it wasn't more like all those other less popular awards shows and all that pesky filmmaking was to blame: cinematography, costume design, production design, GROSS! You can happen during commercial breaks because no one cares.
Except, you know, the core audience, the base of people who look forward to the Oscars every year.
Hell even the three short film categories, which used to be the least popular given the difficulty of knowing anything about them (and the most theoretically easy to axe if you wanted to reduce the size of Oscar night each year), have received a noteable uptick in audience interest in the past two decades with online ease of access and the now popular theatrical packages that screen in big cities where you can see all the nominees together. This package release was a novelty idea not so long ago and in a short time it's become a popular arthouse box office tradition. Why isn't the Academy investing in these types of "fixes," ones that actually make Oscar season more fun, more film-loving, and more accessible to audiences?
Sincere question which makes us feel even more insane to have to voice: if no one cares about anything beyond leading actors, household name stars, and Best Picture how is it, exactly, that the Oscars are still more popular than all the other awards shows that no longer or never did award craftsmanship of any kind other than the very "top" categories like the Globes, the Emmys, SAG, Grammys, and Tonys. All of those shows are less popular (look it up) and less culturally obsessed over than Oscars. The Academy itself though, by all recent accounts, propositions, and behavior, believes the polar opposite, the "fake news" if you will that they are irrelevant and unpopular.
What's to be done and how much worse will it get? Why do all the people in charge of the Oscars seem to hate the Oscars and its traditions? Why are they incapable of understanding that, even if its subconcious, the public values showbiz tradition and institutional history in the same way they enjoy, say, familiar holiday traditions; they bitch about them because they love them. How else to explain Oscar's perpetual dominance in two fields (awards shows in general / movie industry specifically) through 90 years of changing public tastes?
We can all accept a tweak here and there to keep up with the times. Some of the recent changes -- like expanding their voting body to diversify their membership in age and ethnicity and nationality -- have been smart and welcome. But a full scale misunderstanding of your own identity -- a movie award wanting to ignore movies -- is all but courting suicide. Which speaking of...
How are we to continue covering our favorite showbiz tradition if that tradition loses its own identity? The winners of the acting categories presenting to their parallel category each year is corny, yes, like a beauty pageant winner handing the next reigning queen her tiara, but it's also adorable; it grants a sense of succession and immediate history to proceedings which all too often seem embarrassed about their own lineage. We see this all the time in their shunning of previous generations of stars in favour or whoever is hot that year -- remember when Miley Cyrus was suddenly a favourite presenter despiting having very little in the way of movie connections because she was popular with kids at the time?
And even in the matter of CELEBRITY Oscar's current leadership is hopelessly delusional and confused. They haven't asked last year's winners to present because they aren't famous enough but these are hardly obscure celebrities: Frances McDormand is beloved for her iconoclastic grumpy behavior and constantly memed on social media when she shows up to events. Gary Oldman has also been famous and respected by multiple generations for 30 years now. The public has proven over and over again with their eyeballs in high-rated series after high-rated series, that they love watching Allison Janney on the regular. So what does Oscar want exactly? They say they want famous people that the general public is interested in but then they toss out these beloved people while threatening to axe song performances by household names like Jennifer Hudson and Emily Blunt, the latter of whom starred in TWO blockbusters this year. Lady Gaga reportedly straightened out that mess by threatening not to perform if the other nominees were shunned but the very fact that Oscars powers-that-be thought that the public wouldn't be interested in hearing Jennifer Hudson (who?) and Emily Blunt (who?) sing just goes to show how truly, well, stupid they are about both celebrity and the appeal of their own show. (Note: Emily Blunt won't be singing but they've found someone else famous to sing her song. And listen, that can't have been hard to do as the world has plenty of famous singers.)
If the history of other awards shows is any indication, Oscar's plans to jettison 'a few' of their creative categories to commercial breaks will devalue those awards so greatly that they will never return to the ceremony and all craft categories will eventually be off air entirely. By 2022 will anyone care who wins Costume Design/Cinematography/Production Design if they have no memories of who won before or of those joyful moments with important artists who they might not know as celebrities but can enjoy as more 'real' kind of people having the biggest moment of their lives? Has anyone in charge of the Oscars even realized how often those categories have the most surprising speeches and emotion? Has anyone in charge of the Oscars ever noticed how popular some of those moments become? Think about Sandy Powell's oft-quoted over-it "I already have two of these" curtness on her third Costume Design win or all the chatter about that credit card dress for weeks after Priscilla won costume design.
If Costume Design or Production Design are presented off air this year we might lose totally historic televised moments in which the first African-Americans EVER win in those categories (via Black Panther, not so incidentally the public's very favourite film this past year). If Sound Editing or Sound Mixing goes to First Man off air we'll lose the totally historic moment of seing the very first Asian win either of those categories. What's more any of those four prizes could easily go to women and women are sometimes in short supply on Oscar night outside of the female acting categories -- that inequality never reflects well on Oscar.
In conclusion...
DOES ANYONE IN CHARGE OF THE OSCARS EVEN LIKE THE OSCARS?
DOES ANYONE IN CHARGE EVEN LOVE MOVIES?
Asking for a friend who is me (and presumably many of you), who loves watching the Oscars but might not continue to love it, once it stops being the Oscars altogether.
Reader Comments (66)
An excellent article, Nathaniel. I hope things get back to normal soon. lt is palpably clear to me why the ratings are down which is the cause of all this madness. I have had this relayed to me by numerous more conservative friends and members of my family who are film lovers nevertheless. Whether worthy or not, the political speeches and kind of patronising anti Trump rhetoric switches off the 50 per cent who voted for him. I completely understand why this would be the case but others seem to be labouring under the delusion that only Democrats watch the Oscars.
When Trump has been ousted and maybe things are a little less divisive (if that is possible!) maybe we will see higher ratings and a return to form.
This is going to sound like such a groan-worthy college thesis statement, but for me at least, the way the awards season has played out thus far kind of taps into the bizarre disconnect a lot of us are feeling about American politics today.
It absolutely boggles my mind to watch an objectively bad movie like Bohemian Rhapsody now be in a position to win upwards of three Oscars, if not more. The box office is one thing; whatever, people see bad shit all the time. But it makes me feel crazy when I talk to people who full-on think Rami Malek deserves to win an Oscar. What Twilight Zone episode am I living in?
I'm less peeved about the changes to the ceremony, but mostly because this has been an ongoing thing with the Academy for years. Remember when they had people present in the audience and bring others up on stage like a pageant?
There would be some sweet poetic justice if Roma winds up winning Best Picture, but that won't stop the ABC from blaming the Academy for its low ratings instead of failing to grasp that people no longer watch TV the way they used to.
The 'drink every time /3rtful brings up Nick Davis's arbitrary actress rankings' game has given me cirrhosis of the liver.
Don't know what to do about the Bradley Cooper situation, except to point out it's not necessarily as dire as it looks, though one would be more confident about his Oscar chances if more people were talking about A STAR IS BORN during the voting period. Still, while the movie may be undervalued it's not actually hated the way some of its competitors are, and I think it'll garnish more 2nd- and 3rd-place votes than BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY or GREEN BOOK, maybe even more than ROMA. If the film doesn't come in last-place on the inital round of balloting - and if some other film [cough]ROMA[cough] doesn't win outright with more 1st-place votes than all the other films put together - A STAR IS BORN has got a fighting chance. (I'm less confident about Cooper's chances at the "best actor" Oscar, but there's been enough backlash about Bale's and Malek's makeup-enhanced performances that he may have a shot here too.)
As for the ceremony, I think it should be turned into a reality mini-series, with different awards in different installments. Here's how I'd organize it:
Part 1: "The Year in Movies", including honorary/technical awards and the "In Memoriam" montage
Part 2: The short film categories, plus foreign, documentary and animated features
Part 3: Visual categories - cinematography, production design, costumes, film editing, visual effects and makeup/hairstyling
Part 4: Audio categories (more or less) - sound editing and mixing, the music and writing categories
Part 5: The acting categories, "best director" and "best picture"
If each of these parts were two hours (minus commercials) long, that would permit time to show why certain movies were nominated for certain awards, and also for the nominees to explain their particular achievements. It's possible that Part 5 in my schema would be the only one a major network would want to handle, but I would be cool with that as long as the other parts were readily available via streaming (people have been saying "put the Oscars on Netflix", but Hulu or Amazon Prime would work at least as well). I do think putting up the Oscars in installments over successive nights would add suspense leading up to the final night of awards, and enhance the Oscars' eternal message that the movies matter in contrast to the award-cutting proposals which would diminish that message.
Very late to this but- I just want to add a message of support to Nathaniel and all of us who are wondering WTF is happening to "The Oscars".
This series of lame decisions by the Board of Governors and the behind the scenes influence of ABC is so maladroit and stupid it makes me wonder if "The Russians" aren't conspiring against the Oscars. (I'm making a joke but the chaos is very upsetting)
It probably isn't a conspiracy, it really is just old fashioned stupidity, greed, and egos clashing.
But they need a smart person like Oprah, or ? Someone needs to go in there and calm the waters, straighten things out, and keep a wonderful cultural institution intact.
They also need to partner with someone else besides ABC - clearly that network is very short sited and run by idiots.
Now that so much bad has happened, I'm hoping a force for good will come along. I'm very partial to happy "Hollywood" endings.
I think the comment suggesting moving it to an earlier time is probably the simplest and smartest solution. People WANT to watch the Oscars, families WANT to watch it together. Lean in to what you are the way the Super Bowl does. You can make it about the movies AND it can be fun AND it can have popular celebrities, they just don't have to be the ones handing out Best Actor, etc.
It's really a shame they keep apologizing for themselves.
Thank you for writing what we're all feeling Nathaniel. I also would like to add how out of step I have felt with the Academy over the past few years. HOW did Vice score 8 nominations? It is a poorly made film. Same with Bohemian Rhapsody. And those two Oscar wins Three Billboards were awful. The Cooper thing is mystifying as well. I used to be so in step with the Academy and their tastes and now I feel that my fifth choices in most categories are the ones who end up winning.
@Martin: I agree with you on Aparicio's performance. Yet, I knew she would be strongly considered for a nomination very early on, even when she wasn't really getting much attention from the critics circles. There's something about a foreign (supposed) non-actress in their first role that reminded me so much of Catalina Sandino Moreno and Keisha Castle Hughes. I don't think Aparicio's performance was as good as those 2, but it's an attention-getting status helped by a hugely respected best picture frontrunner.
If the Academy is so concerned with telecast ratings, then they should optimize their social media presence in a way that wins over a new audience by informing them. People love to learn about how things work, and when they do, it gives them a greater appreciation for the process. What is art direction? What is the job of the cinematographer? Exactly how does one mix sound? Do a series of YouTube videos highlighting the various aspects of film production using the films nominated. Hell, let people know who's in the Academy, how one becomes a member, how voting is done, etc. We take for granted that these things are not common knowledge.
I think with the current power structure, ABC has the final say, which means they only care if the show is entertaining to an older white dude. I think it's similar to everyone in the NFL freaking out and changing their stance about the national anthem because ratings were down.
I don't know how long ABC has the rights to Oscars, but freeing themselves from them might be the best fix. The Daytime Emmys are on YouTube now. The show is way too long. But every category gets a clip. Montages celebrating longevity are shown. The audience and every presenter is thrilled to be there.
Cooper focused all of his efforts in campaigning for best director (a bold, even pretentious move for a first-timer whose debut I frankly found it overrated, though it's an appallingly weak season). He is great in it, but it's rare for actors to direct themselves to an Oscar win, statistic-wise. I do agree with everything else in your post, though.
I think the producers are at the mercy of ABC who have been carrying this show for far too long and slowly bleeding it for dollars. It almost feels like they're in panic mode now, realizing that changing media habits (and short attention spans) are the real culprit, not the excitement level of a production design or cinematography win. They're all acting like Republicans catering to the minority base.
Complaining about the Oscars is as time-honored a tradition as the Oscars themselves. They've ALWAYS had problematic periods. Driving Miss Daisy winning the year the un-nominated Do the Right Thing was released? Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction? Crash over Brokeback Mountain?
There are plenty of winners this decade that I've disagreed with, but there have been a few Best Picture winners that I've loved ... 12 Years a Slave, Birdman, Moonlight. Hell, I actually really liked The Artist. That's not terrible so far. This year seems like it'll bite, but hopefully next year will rebound.
Nathaniel, I think you express with passion the sentiments of many movie fans and Oscar followers. The AMPAS BOG seems somewhat embarrassed by their awards ceremony and they listen too intently to the suits at ABC. I agree with the writer who urges that your essay be sent to as many Academy members as possible.
Pete & everyone -- please share the article if you're passionate about it. That's the only way these things reach them is through volume of noise. :)
Hey Nathaniel i love your writing I always trust your film perspective and you have introduced me to so much! The oscars this year feels like the Duvall/Farrell family political campaign in Widows; some insidious obligatory ritual rather than anything celebratory. I think especially with what has been happening with harrassment (the times up/metoo movements which i hope but still need to wait to see unfold to believe), all the publicised deportation of kids and families (has been happening in Oz for years but to see it unfold on grander american media is so much more vivid, and must be affecting US social climate) and basically a nihilistic totalitarian present to reside in, it lifts the veil of why to care and makes one impatient with oscars incompetence. But the whole thimg is an ad for the movies and the movies are really the reward so just think about Olivia Colman spewing up cake and having another bite, or Paul Schrader's transcendent experience which feels instantly a canonized film classic OR think about how great Toni was when she said That f f f f aaaace on your face *GENIUS*
I just want one thing from the academy awards this year and it is that somebpdy makes a pedo joke or a reference to Singer pr just makes the 'slip' of the tongue.... Bohemian Rapesody! Can we get Natalie Portman on this presenter bill??