The Oscars

With the Oscars just about a week away, it seems appropriate to write a post analyzing the award show. Being that I am currently attending film -school I would be remiss to not share my thoughts on the spectacle. In many ways, this post will be a pseudo-continuation of my previous post regarding the responsibility that goes along with celebrity. The simple truth is that the increased politicalization of the Oscars, due to droves of celebrities using the podium to plug their political agenda, has left many Americans feeling fine with missing the award show that is supposed to be a celebration of the magic of film and recognition that many members of a film crew don’t normally receive.

In an article published in Paper Magazine by Jael Goldfine, the author reports on recent data released regarding viewership of the Oscars. In recent years, the number of viewers of the Oscars broadcast has plunged to record lows:

“Out of a representative survey of American adults, only 20% knew what movie was named best picture in 2018 (the answer, Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water). Between 1-4% of adults thought it was Call Me By Your Name, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, The Post and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri — but an impressively apathetic 58% had no idea or didn't care to even guess.”

This data is incredibly significant because it represents the true voice of the consumers, or would be consumers, of this content and not the Hollywood elite or the cast and crew that worked on the film, that are normally the spokespeople, biased at that, for the content. Jael continues by extrapolating on the reason for the data results.

“This new data might just reaffirm for the nth time what we already know about the Oscars — that they desperately need to speak to a wider audience if they want to keep their cultural pedestal.”

As Jael says, the Oscars have become incredibly exclusive in both content of the films being showcased and within the content of the award shows and the speeches given by Hollywood big names. With much of the middle of the country in support of the president, you can’t blame those populations for tuning out of the Oscars which has historically bashed Trump unrelentingly. With the Oscars are slated to air without a host this Sunday, it may be a happy return what the Oscars are truly about, the love of film.