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Look! It Moves! by Adi Tantimedh #38: Oscar Non-Fever

Published Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:55:34 -0600

I've always found Oscar Night a surreal affair in America. It's a combination of a national prom night, the Queen's Speech, an annual Royal Wedding, and the World Cup for non-sporty people, all rolled into one for Americans. Everyone I know in LA will be watching it. They organize parties, sometimes expensive and lavish ones, to watch it together every year. It's their hometown Event. The Oscars have always been the pinncacle of glamour and fame, and validation for anyone in the film industry. It's the night of the homecoming queens and Cinderellas. The frothing right-wing will rail about the decadence of limousine liberals patting themselves on the back, but if any of these rightists actually won an Oscar, you can bet they'd be gushing sloppily as the next winner. Some people might turn down a Knighthood, but I suspect very few will turn down an Oscar. There's nothing like Glamour. It's powerful magic. You can tell it's all about the fame, celebrity and glamour when the technical awards are given out at a different ceremony and dinner days before the main event, and the mainstream media really doesn't give a toss about those.

The thing is, for everyone who goes to the ceremony, it's work. It's a chore. They have to sit there for three hours without food or drink and endure bad in-jokes, speeches, appalling and pretentious dance numbers. They can't even get up to go to the loo unless the cameras are off them. I wonder how many attendees manage to smuggle in a tipple or a sandwich in their pockets or handbags. At least at the Golden Globes, there's some drink to tide everyone over. But if there's anything worse than going to the awards, it's not getting to go to the awards. Witness the teacup-storm 'scandal' of the producer of THE HURT LOCKER who's been barred from attending because he was crass and naïve enough to send an email to voters asking them to vote for his film over AVATAR. The guy only personally financed the film so that it could get made at all. Hollywood can be like the most hermetic high school clique you could ever imagine. It's a popularity contest with high stakes. There are always covert negative campaigns launched against some of the movies nominated to try to taint them in the eyes of the voters and stop them from winning, like the timing of a serviceman announcing his lawsuit against THE HURT LOCKER for stealing details from his life and his service in Iraq for its script (which may have sufficient and valid ground for a suit). There was a negative campaign against Gerard Depardieu back when he was nominated for GREEN CARD in the 90s where the US media tried to make out that he participated in a rape when he was a juvenile delinquent. There are whole black ops and misinformation campaigns at play like a Cold War during Oscar campaign season, many so deep we may never know the extent of the operations.

If you want to know how insiders really feel about the Oscars, you can do worse than read Nikki Finke's live-blogging:

It's a big night for big businesses. Under all the glamour and glory, there is money driving all of this. The network broadcasting the Oscars need the massive ratings, and it dominates the evening the way the Football does. The advertising slots are worth top dollar. This is why the first ads for the Apple iPad premiered on the Oscars' breaks. The designer gowns and frocks worn by the attendees and nominees will get extra exposure and more sales. And most of all, the winners will be able to command higher salaries on their next jobs.

All in all, the whole pomp and circumstance of the Oscars is for Hollywood to celebrate itself as mature, forward-thinking and significant, though you could argue it's also Hollywood at its most staid, mainstream, middle-brow, bland. Every year, I find myself wondering just how relevant it really is, despite the sheer desire to let its winning films be considered the standard for the pinnacle of movie culture, social thinking and story content, whether it's really such a big deal. You could argue that the ritual self-congratulation is really about promoting the films and the industry and thus ensure continued financial investment in the industry and its products, but much of the films are old wine in new bottles, a new flavour of redemptive melodramas and obvious socially conscious messages. The majority of voters are quite old and hardly even bother to go out to the cinemas. They usually just watch the nominated films on DVD screeners posted out to them by the Academy, so there's a big argument about just how in-touch they are with current trends and genres. Do kids, teens or twentysomethings still give a shit about the Oscars? It feels like something their parents and old people care about more than they would. I suppose only those want want to be actors or make films would care, and might see it as the ultimate validation, but I continue to wonder how relevant movies are. Are they still seen as important events or a dying casual pastime as reality TV takes over the TV schedules just because they're cheaper to make than scripted dramas? At least the people who hope to be nominated for an Oscar have to actually acquire skillsets and have actual talent, unlike people who want to be in reality TV. And as younger Academy members gradually increase, I suppose a geek contingent will eventually get a foothold and we'll see comics creators or projects get nominated.

Me, I'd rather be whacking zombies on the head with gardening implements on the Xbox, but I have to type up this column, so I might as well have the Oscars on in the background.

I'd like to thank the Academy at lookitmoves@gmail.com

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