In the Dilettantes’ post-mortem Oscar thread, opinion seems split – strongly – between those who liked and those who disliked this year’s innovation, having five previous winners do the presentations for the acting awards. I assume the discussion is equally opinionated in the “real” thread. I’m curious about how the numbers might go, so let’s do a poll:
Did you like having a group of previous winners speak “one-to-one” to the nominees of the acting awards prior to the announcement of the winner? (Leave aside whether every single one of those 20 bits was worthwhile – we’re talking concept overall).
Please vote yes/no
And then if you have any additional commentary, add it separately.
My vote:
Yes
It was different; I thought several of the nominees were truly moved by it; I didn’t miss the brief clips, since I don’t think they can actually reveal anything about a performance I haven’t seen in full, and I don’t need one for a performance I have.
Just because the Oscars are implicitly a big Hollywood circle-jerk doesn’t mean they have to make it explicit. I don’t care whether the nominees were moved by it or not. The show ought to be for the audience (otherwise, why broadcast it on TV?), and as an audience member, I thought it was boring as hell to watch Robert DeNiro give a verbal blowjob to Sean Penn, needlessly extending the show by a good hour.
There was one Best Actor nominee that I wasn’t familiar with and hadn’t heard much about the movie. Rather than having a previous winner say that each nominee is the greatest thing since sliced bread, I kinda wanted to see at least a small example of his performance. I know it’s not much but it gives me some small amount of context, which I felt was missing in this format.
I think it finally made true the old chestnut, “It’s an honor just to be nominated.” Plus, I *lurve *ritual and, in particular, Initiatory and Blessing Rites, and it just REEKED of an Initiation, which made me go squee.
Yes.
The awards are NOT for the audience. They’re industry awards, given by people in the industry to peers in the industry. That the hoi palloi get to peek in to view the proceedings is a perk for those of us who like the movies, or who just like the fashions, or who just like to see movie people.
That’s why there will ALWAYS be an Academy Awards, no matter what the ratings are. Yeah, the organization wants ratings, but it’s not like they’ll quit giving out the Oscars should the majority of people quit watching. They’re industry awards, so it was nice that peers gave accolades to peers. It made each nominee feel special.
I do think there should have been performance clips too though.
I do think a short clip of the performance still needs to be included.
While the AWARDS are not for the audience, the show itself is, otherwise they would just publish award winners in the paper the next day without fanfare.
Take out the superfluous and tedious dance numbers and there would be plenty of time for clips.
The awards are not for the audience but the show is. I would much rather see a clip of the work of the actors, as they used to do. It made the show longer and I’m not sure the French actress even knew what she was saying.
I figured they did it this way to give positive strokes because they knew (or strongly suspected) that in at least one case all actors present would be disappointed.
Also, why no real tap dancers? Come on, Top Hat without tap? But that’s another thread.
I agree with what The Superhero said. I don’t give a rat’s ass what some other actor has to say about the nominees. They’ve already been nominated for the award, that pretty much says that they’re good actors, listening to others give them ego strokes doesn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. Show me a clip, demonstrate the nominees’ abilities, rather than talking about it. Movies are, after all, a visual medium.
It went untelevised for over 20 years. It’s a show business awards *show *for people in show business. . . ie, former theater and band geeks. I assure you they love the big production numbers and schmaltz as much as the plebes do. More, probably.
The Academy can afford a curtain made of Swarovski crystals because it’s televised and they can sell advertising time, but they’d have *some *sort of razzle dazzle even if the awards presentation moved back to the Roosevelt Hotel.
The awards may be industry awards, but they sure as shit are putting on a show for the TV audience,. There’s no reason they can’t be both.
To be honest I’d rather have tributes AND clips, and save the time elsewhere. The tributes can be boring to us, but they obviously meant a lot to the actors; Anne Hathaway was obviously utterly blown out of her seat by being praised by Shirley MacLaine. It was pretty cool to see big time actors gasping in awe at their own heroes.
I hated it. WAY too long. The awards already were way too long, and this extended them even further. As someone who didn’t get to see very many movies this year (new baby), I really missed not even having a snippet of the performance, and it just seemed way too over the top. I mean, come on…4 minutes just to introduce nominees? It drove me nuts.
I hated it so much I muted the TV until the award winner was announced. For one thing I’m not even convinced the tributes were sincere. They’re just reading lines off of cue cards. Yeah we know they’re all great. Just show us the clips and tell us who won.
Of course. They want people to tune in, and sometimes they compromise themselves for it, such as this year. The brain-damaged director and producers thought that viewers would rather see Broadway-inspired song and dance productions (HEY CONDOM, THESE AREN’T THE TONY AWARDS!) rather than the icky weirdo songs that were actually nominated, from that movie that’s, you know, made more money and has been seen by more people than any of the other non-comedy, non-comic book movies.
True, but I don’t care anymore. Never again will such cool songs be nominated. Condom blew it, big time, and I hope that in years to come the ridicule will grow heavier and harsher, and weigh the bastard’s career down.
I didn’t mind there being former winners introducing the nominees and I didn’t mind that it made the show longer (the producers did a decent job of speeding up other parts of the show to compensate) however it’s crucial that they show scenes from the nominated work. The former winners could read the name, and intro the clips and say a very brief word to the nominee, but the long drawn out ego-fucking needs to go. It succeeded in making me loathe everyone associated.
They dragged on and on and most seemed like a speech read off of the teleprompter. I wanted to see clips of the performances. We already know people liked them, as they were nominated. I want to see why they were nominated, not just hear more heaps of rehearsed praise.
The concept is nice, though I wouldn’t want to see it ever year. The problem is that they talked too long, and it turned into over-indulgent fawning, bordering on eulogizing. Some of the nominees seemed to be embarrassed by the whole thing.