Hollywood_Golden_Guy

"The End of Oscars Televised Era"

The End of Oscars Televised Era.
Why the Academy is criticized for not getting it right, and shouldn’t.

By Tim Nyhus

Best known as the organization behind the movie industry’s most prestigious honor, the Oscar, the Academy encourages excellence in filmmaking through a range of coveted awards. While the Oscar statuette – a symbol admired around the world – acknowledges the very highest level of achievement, every form of Academy recognition, be it a certificate, plaque or other form of trophy, carries significance like none other in the world of movies.
Don’t take my word for it; this is a direct statement pulled from the Academy’s own website.
Have we as a society become so tasteless and jaded by the cheap thrills of reality television that prestige, class, and tradition no longer have a place in our pop culture? This seems to be the message the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is getting each year after the Oscar telecast ratings are released.

Being a Hollywood and Oscar purist, I for one am appalled each year at the countless attempts the Academy has made at “re-inventing” the Oscar telecast. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences prides itself on the “art” of film making. This “art” perspective is what seems to be blamed for continuous conflict with mainstream Americas taste for the nominated films. Time and time again Oscar viewers seem to be conveying a message through lack luster ratings that they are out of touch with the nominated films. And to be honest most probably are. Oh yes there are the critics that argue the host, poor telecast format and length are too blame, but exceptions appealing to mainstream taste such as Titanic, Forrest Gump, and Lord of The Rings to name a few in recent history have proven to be very successful telecast years.
So the question is this, how do you protect honoring the film industries “art” of film making while rectifying the taste of the viewership you so desperately are trying to please? The short answer is you don’t.

If the Academy wants to be respected by members, peers, and movie connoisseurs in the morning, you cannot allow the perception of mainstream American film taste dictate what is artistic value. This institution is steeped in tradition, from preserving film archive collections, protecting the exploitation of the Oscar statuette image at all costs to preventing the sale of any Oscar since 1950. The Academy has said it doesn't want Oscars to be viewed as a collectible item; presumably they think commercializing it dilutes the artistic integrity the award was given for. Then can anyone explain Titanic winning Best Picture in 1997?

To understand this more clearly take a brief look at the Academy. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has been in existence for 82 years. The public was first invited to view this Hollywood ritual when it was first televised in 1953. Prior to 1953 for some 25 years the Academy Awards were exclusive members only dinners of the Hollywood elite. To this day the Academy remains a member’s only institution for which to achieve membership you must be sponsored by an existing member for a significant contribution to the motion picture industry. Upon which you are then voted on for membership and if accepted invited to become a member by the Board of Governors.

I honestly believe most people do not understand or care this is not the People’s Choice Awards, MTV Movie Awards, Golden Globes or countless other shows of the Awards season. The bottom line home viewer the Academy is not interested in your vote, sit back with a glass of champagne and enjoy the invite. And to the Academy you have cheapened yourself whether your motive is greed or other. You are supposed to be an elite institution of the film industry founded to honor past and present craftsmen and women from all professions of the film industry.

The honor bestowed to peers by the Academy and its members’ will always be somewhat of a mystery to the general public. I think they like it that way and that is the way it should be. Public misconception and corporate greed of what an Oscar worthy film is this is at the root of what has cheapened the Academy’s legacy by contributing to the Academy losing its founding identity. Whether by choice or pressure the Academy has bowed to the televised ratings era. We have seen this year’s ratings ploy already with the addition of 5 Best Picture Categories to the existing 5 for a total of 10 and the elimination of the Thalberg Award and other honorary Oscars from the televised awards show. Blame anyone you like, but in the end it is the Academy who has hurt the Academy.

Yet every Oscar season the same critics and discussions arise, and every year the Academy rolls out a new production team and marketing firm to publicize a re-invented show. Every year we hear the same complaints about the poor musical numbers and the telecast being too long. The only solution to protect against cheapening the legacy and artistic value of the films and artists that are gone, present, and yet to come, that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has stood for the last 82 years is simple, end the Oscars televised era.

Really the whole thing is hypocrisy - the Academy has never cared about the public or what they think. From the founding it was industry elite recognizing their own based on criteria that appeal to industry insiders. They need the public for revenue via advertising ratings viewership. Outside of that you and I are nothing in opinion or other. I just wish they would stick to tradition and leave things alone rather than desperately trying to re-invent the broadcast every year.