I woke up today to everyone talking about the Oscars, which you’d think would be a dream come true. I’m a huge fan of award shows (and award season in general), and nothing quite compares to the Oscars. It remains the most revered awards show in the world – please, do not bring up viewing figures for The Game Awards, I do not care – and being an Academy Award winner, or even an Academy Award nominee, will be referenced for the rest of your career. It is a definitive moment. But as much as I love the Oscars, its power, and its influence, I’m going to need you all to shut up now. Yeah, you. Zip it.
Most people are talking about the Will Smith incident, which I have no issue with – either the slap or the conversation. The discourse around the right and wrongs is exhausting, but what happened is a rich guy told a joke about another rich guy’s wife, and got slapped. It’s funny, and that’s all it needs to be. No discussions, no analysis, just memes and vibes. If that’s the level of engagement you have with this year’s Oscars, we’re good.
The problem is because the Oscars are so huge, everyone knows about them whether they follow movies or not. They are a cultural event unlike any other award show on the planet. And because they’re of such importance, everyone wants their favourites to win, even when they have absolutely no right to. ‘How has [my favourite actor] never won an Oscar?’ – idk man, maybe because he’s Chris Evans. What was he going to win it for, Captain America 3? That time he picked up the hammer and everyone screamed?
Speaking of the hammer, that was up for an award this year. Yes, really. The time Captain America picked up the hammer in 2019 was up for an award at the 2021 Oscars. It wasn’t up for an actual Oscar, but some nonsensical gong handed out like we’re at the Kid’s Choice Awards, which ended up going to the Flash. It was voted for by Twitter, which feels so disrespectful to the Oscars, such a desperate attempt to grab ratings and appeal to a younger generation, and so obviously misguided. Samuel L. Jackson was handed an honorary Oscar and hugged Denzel Washington during his speech, but this wasn’t part of the actual ceremony. Instead, it was during an untelevised event the day before. I guess the highest grossing actor of all time getting emotional over recognition for his career’s body of work is less important than Amy Schumer dangling from the ceiling dressed as Spider-Man.
Many people find awards shows long and boring, I get that. Hell, I love the Oscars but I’m not staying up until LA time to watch them. I understand that they want to drive ratings up, but it feels almost embarrassing at this point. The awards, at least, were well deserved. They weren’t all my picks (Negga not being even nominated for Best Supporting Actress continues to astound me), but they weren’t made with ratings or popularity in mind… and here’s where everyone needs to zip it.
The Game Awards gets a lot of viewers because it’s basically a giant advert. People are there for the trailers and reveals, not the actual winners. Some are even handed out in the pre-show, a trick the Oscars copied this year. Gaming also rarely makes the distinction between ‘popular’ and ‘good’. In fact, in gaming, popular = good. People try to apply this logic to the Oscars, but it doesn’t – and shouldn’t – apply.
I don’t want to gatekeep the Oscars, but I feel like I’m about to anyway. I know not everyone keeps up with movies like I do, and I love that movies that win big awards tend to have an uptick in interest afterwards. It happened to Moonlight, and I expect it to happen to CODA. But if you have not seen the movies nominated, what makes you think your opinion is worth anything? My favourite movie of last year was Last Night in Soho, and it got zero nominations, but I’m only salty about Costumes and Editing. As much as I love Edgar Wright and Anya Taylor-Joy, I don’t think either of them deserved to be up for anything.
I’m seeing people complain that Andrew Garfield didn’t win for Tick, Tick… Boom!, and sure, he was great. He was my second pick of the nominees, after eventual winner Smith. But have you seen King Richard? The Power of the Dog? Being the Ricardos? The Tender Bar? The Tragedy of Macbeth? Do you even know which movie in that list didn’t have a nominee for Best Actor? For the vast majority, your answer is ‘no’, and therefore why should I care if you think Garfield should have won because he was funny in Spider-Man?
The Oscars aren’t perfect. They put too much stock in bodies of work and not enough in individual performances, they weigh up whether certain people are ‘owed’ awards and whether they’ll get another chance, and they go by name and reputation far too often. Anything Sorkin sneezes near gets a nomination, it seems. I’ll happily argue about winners and snubs – in fact, I’d love to. CODA was one of the most enjoyable movies up for Best Picture, but it’s a million miles away from what a Best Picture should be, and I’d love to talk about that with someone. What’s that? You’ve only seen Don’t Look Up and Dune? You think No Way Home should have been nominated… man, I’m gonna go Will Smith on you in a second.
I want people to fall in love with movies. I have no problem with someone watching and talking about the Oscars even if they’ve only seen a handful of films on the ballot. The problem is the online entitlement combined with the Academy courting the TikTok generation reduces conversations down to stan culture, and nobody wants that. Next they’ll be dunking gunge on Jane Campion and handing her a surfboard.
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