by Nathaniel R
"If you can't love yourself, how the hell you gonna love anybody else?" RuPaul's famous episode ending quote on RuPaul's Drag Race is profundity in silly soundbite form. "Amen!" How different might our current but lifelong Oscars obsession be if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences took this fact to heart. How much more fun would the annual Oscar circus be if they just learned to love themselves again. For you see, the more they think poorly of themselves, the more we begin to question our own lifelong love for the event. Have we wasted decades of our lives obsessing over this annual holiday/event/ritual? If they no longer feel any love, perhaps we should consider a divorce?
As you may have heard the Oscars will not be airing 8 of their 23 categories LIVE this year, but instead do them an hour before the broadcast and then edit them into the evening...
The Unlucky Disrespected are:
- Live Action Short
- Animated Short
- Documentary Short
- Film Editing (*the* category Oscar-fanatics most look to annually as a bellwether early in the evening)
- Makeup and Hairstyling
- Production Design
- Original Score
- Sound
Never mind that this is disrespectful to those fine artisans though it is. The Academy learned from their aborted decision a few years back with the #PresentAll24 movement so this time they're PROMISING that all of these artists will get their moment during the show. But we weren't born yesterday. We see how these "earlier this evening" or "last week" edit-ins work into other awards shows and they instantly deem the wins LESSER THAN, giving us only a brief glimpse of the thank you and none of the drama or context surrounding the category.
Never mind that this decision goes against several decades of tradition, which it does. Tradition is a super-power that takes decades to earn. To give it away helplessly ---as if people didn't enjoy it -- is nonsense.
Never mind that it's completely antithetical to the "live" nature of suspense and drama at the Oscars. Theoretically "drama" and "suspense" are what people want when they watch live television -- as any fan knows you can start to feel the 'narrative' of the night and the mood of the room begin to take shape depending on which way the craft categories go. Sometimes that makes the final awards true nailbiters and/or shocks (think Cabaret vs The Godfather, Gravity vs 12 Years a Slave, Mad Max vs The Revenant vs Spotlight, La La Land vs Moonlight, etcetera). Shows that dont respect their own prizes instantly see those prizes devalued by the public (The Grammys, The Emmys, and the Tonys have all shunted prizes off their main evening and the deafening silence around most of those prizes is telling).
But anyway nevermind all that.
Me obsessing on the Oscars during 2005. With years of innocent Oscar love behind me and some rockier "love" to come. What all of this points to is a much larger problem within the Academy than any of the individual points of agony from this decision or last year's historically low ratings (COVID-influenced of course).
The sad truth is that the Academy has been listening to the click-chasing media, and the people who don't care about them as an institution (like ABC who only cares about ratings) for far too long. In short, they now believe their own anti-hype. They believe that "no one cares" (factually very much untrue given that the internet proves that people love to talk about the Oscars all year long). They have lost all confidence. For at least a handful of years now it is progressively feeling more and more like a slow motion suicide. Their constant fear and despair about 'not being what they once were' aka the most highly watched and most popular non-sports live event each year... masks the real but no longer seemingly believed truth that in the context of the right now they are exactly that still aka the most highly watched and most popular non-sports live event each year.
It's a perception game.
If the Academy boldly fell in love with themselves again we believe some audiences would come back and love them again, too. Not everyone mind you. The world has changed. They will never be as big as they once were but... that... is.... okay. Nothing is as big as it once was because instead of 3 tv channels and the local movie theater, there are now thousands of channels, multiplexes, youtube, tiktok, etcetera for people who like showbiz style entertainment. If the Academy still boldly loved themselves they could be as big as they could possibly be. The answer to the declining popularity is not to shrink but to get bigger. More events. More lead-up drama. Primetime nomination shows (so many people have suggested this) or mini-profiles of the artisans (like how the Olympics do profiles of all those athletes to bolster the 'narratives').
The Academy has fallen hard for Twitter (but still seems vaguely unaware of tiktok) and will waste time during the Ceremony on Amazon's Cinderella movie (or whatever surpasses it in the Twitter fan vote). The Oscars would have done themselves a HUGE favour if they had only thought, instead, to concentrate on popular things they did nominate or how to boost the profile of 'smaller' nominees that they could "introduce" to audiences who might end up loving those very same things (Hint: that's what the clips are for which they seem to think are expendable!)
Why aren't they figuring out a way to celebrate Dune? It's made $400 million globally. It's very popular. It's up for 10 Oscars.
Everyone I have ever met loved the rare times the Oscars did something fun with Costume Design whether it was a mini-fashion parade on the stage or the host in costumes inspired by (thanks Whoopi!). There are many many many many many many ways to celebrate the craft of movies without being boring about it. In a town so full of creatives there are surely hundreds of ideas we might not even dream of in our fantasies. But the #1 prerequisite for producing or hosting or directing or writing for or even advising the Oscars should always be an intense love of the Oscars. These are the ONLY voices the powers that be in the Academy should be listening to. I repeat: the only voices.
People who "don't care" are not your target audience. People who do not love showbiz are also not your target. You want the people who love and obsess over the show and the people who are casually interested and might watch some years. And finally the people who might love it if they were introduced to it in a way that sparked their imagination. Those are the only people to court. If all three of those audiences tune in, the Oscars will be on the road back to heath. Some people only watch because culturally it's the thing to do (same with the Olympics and some sporting events) but you have to energize the people who'll watch it even if it isn't first to have critical mass.
There are ways of integrating the new digital social media world into the event and building up Oscar's fanbase with younger generations who consume media this way. Of course there are ways to do this! But jettisoning long held traditions and showing a lack of respect for yourself is not the way to win anyone over.
For as long as the Oscars have existed there have been people who've hated and complained about the "back-patting" nature of showbiz awards and who have said the show is too long. 'Watch as the most glamorous and wealthiest people in the world celebrate and congratulate each other!' they say disdainfully. To this we reply "Yes... please! THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT WE LIKE TO WATCH. Well that, and any and all clips or montage or presentations and speeches to illustrate what's being congratulated and why."
For many years now the Oscars have only listened to the negatives, and to people who cannot be pleased (who are legion as everyone who uses the internet is aware). For many years now they have been perpetually bullied by ABC -- if the behind the scenes scuttlebutt is accurate and we have no reason to believe that it isn't -- to make the show shorter and jettison some of the awards. The belief appears to be that this will improve ratings. Newsflash: it will not. Basic truths here: MAJOR EVENTS don't become events through timidity or smallness. The Superbowl is not the most watched live event because it's short or cheaply run. It's the most watched live event because it is really really big and a spectacle and a tradition and comes complete with those ever-escalating half-time shows for casual viewers who might not care that much about football but are there for the tradition part of it. The half-time show is a great analogy. For the Oscars that's the song performances. This year alone you have superstars like Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, and Lin-Manuel Miranda who can be worked into the show to please the casual viewer. All without changing the identity of the Oscars or turning off the base who are there to watch movies and movie stars being celebrated.
There is a way to reengage audiences who've tuned out, too, and to energize new audiences, but none of them will work without confidence. Confidence is a turn-on. Nothing the Oscars ever try will succeed until they learn to love themselves again. They should be parading their giant naked golden glamour about proudly and defiantly and very often. Keep the traditions (they're hard won and built on celebrating the artform and the stars) both because it pleases the obsessive fans (i.e. YOUR VERY BASE) and because its core to your very being. No one said you can't do that and also adapt to new technologies. Just think of all the creative ways little bits of the biggest night in Hollywood could be instantly repurposed on tiktok for example or memed on twitter. Adapt and evolve, yes, but never in ways that aren't reflective of your wonderful self.
But first things first. If the Academy learns to love itself again -- which includes loving all those craftsmen that make the movies so fascinating -- the show will be stronger than its been in years and years. We're rooting for them but we hope it's not wistfully from a distance, remembering them as a great past love that couldn't ever see their own true worth.