The Frustrations of the 94th Academy Awards
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
The 94th Academy Awards are less than a week away, and we have clearly been doing our part here on Films Fatale to go through all of the nominees, do our rankings, and get excited. However, when it comes to the literal awards show now, I have to be honest. This is the least excited I have been in years. The ceremony I once loved — and still do, but out of devotion and nothing else — feels completely unlike itself more than ever this year. This is the lifeless bodysnatched version of the Academy Awards: it exists, but barely. There are a multitude of reasons why I am so distanced from the ceremony this year (I will still be covering it and doing what I do every year, mind you), and you are likely aware of the majority of the reasons. In short, it’s blatant that the Academy is so unaware of who its audience is, what its capabilities are, and how it was different from other major awards shows. I adore music but haven’t cared about the Grammys, because I feel like the celebration of the medium is artificial, popularity beats everything else, there isn’t a clue about the scope of the medium represented, many nominees aren’t cherished like a select few are, and it only reminds me what bothers me about how music is represented in this day and age than anything else. I gravitated towards the Academy Awards years ago, because it felt different. It felt more genuine, albeit occasionally wrong and in association with brown-nosing rather than integrity, but I still loved it despite its flaws. Now, I can’t even pretend it isn’t unlike the Grammy Awards. It may even be worse this year.
The biggest flaw is how a number of categories have been cut from the live presentation, as to try to appeal to the masses with a shorter ceremony time. These include all three short categories, Production Design, Original Score, Makeup and Hairstyling, Film Editing, and Best Sound. In case you have somehow missed this, the awards will be presented before the ceremony, tweeted out, and then (apparently) shown as snippets throughout the ceremony. I’ve seen how the Academy Awards treats the Governors Awards Ceremony with barely a whimper of a mention every year, so I am already apprehensive as to how much representation these winners and nominees will actually get. Nonetheless, all categories should be celebrated live, because these are all vital elements of filmmaking and the industry. New filmmakers start with shorts (or those with a limited budget). Editors piece together the works we love. Production designers create these settings for our characters to inhabit. The Academy is clearly trying to spotlight the famous faces, but this is a great opportunity to spread the word of those who aren’t famous and deserve their flowers.
Before I go into an additional reason why this bothers me, I need to explore some of the other decisions that have boiled my blood a little bit as of late. The last few years’ ceremonies have been held without a host, and the result has quite honestly been great. This stemmed from the axing of Kevin Hart as a host, with no one wanting to fill his shoes. The shows were a little leaner, less full of silly nonsense, and more about the awards themselves. Quite honestly, this was actually a change for the better. The Academy seemed to not feel the same way. They have elected not one, not two, but three hosts — Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Regina Hall — to host the evening, when even one host was clearly too many. I’m not going to comment on how I feel about their comedic stylings, as comedy is subjective, and my vexations have nothing to do with this. I have loved the Academy Awards for years, but have rarely ever cared about who was hosting. I don’t watch for this. The hosts are for those in attendance because the comedy hasn’t translated well onto our television sets for a good decade (even the least bad hosting gigs of the last ten years haven’t felt that good). I don’t care about that. I will say that trying to appeal to more people by stacking the amount of hosts isn’t really the way to go; aiming for one central host would have been wiser.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. Next we have the Oscars Fan Favorite Film: a new unofficial award where films with the most votes — submitted via hashtags on social media — will be announced during the ceremony. This isn’t the Teen Choice Awards, for crying out loud. The majority of people who gravitate towards this kind of awards ceremony likely don’t give an iota of a damn about the Academy Awards, and I know this because they’re the kinds of audiences that express grief about the Oscars in the first place. This isn’t even a real award, but instead a shoutout to a userbase that likely isn’t even watching the winner being announced. If anything, a popular film award was announced a few years ago, and the decision was met with vicious backlash. The idea was rescinded, but they clearly tried it again now, proving that the Academy has zero connection with those who are actually interested (if anything, we feel ignored). Furthermore, just to dip into this territory of superficiality even further, there is the new “award” for the Oscars Cheer Moment: a select sequence or scene in a film that wowed you. Again, this feels like something more in the vein of an MTV awards show than the Oscars.
Meanwhile, all of this is going on while literal Academy Award winners aren’t even being presented live. The audacity of this proverbial slap-to-the-face that is going on is actually astounding. Here are people who may never have this opportunity again — first-time filmmakers, editors, hairstylists, and more — who are being pushed out of the way as to have a shorter run time. Yet the ceremony is padding itself with so much useless content: three hosts when there should be none, awards that only mean something to a majority of people who aren’t even tuning in (or usually never tuned in, and may only temporarily watch just to see who won), and a fixation on the awards with big names, all in the hopes of hanging onto ratings. There are reasons why some of the other non-acting, non-major awards are still here, including Best Visual Effects and Best Original Song. The first one is the popularity attached to these kinds of categories, and it’s a big reason why I’ve hated the song category for years. It is misused as a means of having performances at the ceremony. Of course, that category is kept, so we can all watch the famous faces on the big day. However, there’s something else, and it’s a little more sinister.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that many of these decisions were at the hand of network ABC, which has been the home of the Academy Awards for as long as I can remember (since the mid ’70s, to be more literal). ABC told the Oscars to cut twelve categories, or else they wouldn’t be televised at all. There was a compromise made to wind up with eight-cut categories; a near third of the entire nominations. This news came from outlets like ScreenRant, but taking a second to marinate on what’s really going on here makes my spine tingle. ABC is owned by Disney, and I have to take a step back and look at what categories remain telecast. There’s Best Original Song, which boats the Encanto song “Dos Oruguitas”. There’s Best Visual Effects, which houses marvel films. There’s Best Costume Design, which Cruella is slated to win. Look at the two fan-service categories that have eaten up air time, and you’ll find an affinity for Disney properties there as well. Basically, ABC told the Academy Awards that you will not air unless you sacrifice the awards of honest winners, but let’s make sure that we are best represented in the meantime. It’s quite honestly horrifying. As a fan of many Disney films, this is shameful.
Of course, the Academy doesn’t realize that it doesn’t need ABC to operate. It could be streaming instead, in the same way that the nominations are announced every year for the last few years: through the Academy’s various online avenues. It would limit the reach of the ceremony, but it would keep the integrity that the Academy apparently had. Those who are interested would tune in. Ratings don’t matter. The Academy has to be honest with itself now, because it is ninety four years old at this point, and we have to get real by this near-centennial-mark: awards shows don’t matter like they once did. The all-star games of sporting events used to be a way to introduce major athletes to the masses when you could only see one team (and a select amount of games at that) per year. With the access to all games that we now have, the all-star games are now just a fun aside, and athletes know that (games are treated less seriously, because who wants to get hurt in a bout of fun?). The Academy Awards are in a similar territory now. They no longer are the source of watching films for the masses. Those who aren’t interested won’t care what wins. Those who are interested will try to catch every nomination ahead of time (like myself).
The Academy is chasing an audience that doesn’t care with the potential of losing its small viewer base that stuck around. It proves that they have no idea who actually is interested anymore, all with the fear of ratings, which, again, no longer matter in 2022. There are Academy obsessives, the very small amount of people that may slightly care, and the vast majority of cinephiles and non-movie-goers that actually avoid the Oscars. You can’t win these people over, but you can neglect those who are still here. If ratings matter so much, then why are you, the Academy, completely clueless as to who is still watching, and why we are watching? Why do you allow voters that don’t watch all of the nominees in a category to vote, but couldn’t care less about those who devote their time every year to watch every nominee and try to predict who will win? Why do you shun those in the actual industry whilst trying to impress those who actually use every fiber of their being to stray away from you? Why are you allowing a network to dictate how you celebrate film if you actually cared to celebrate film the right way? Why are you trying to win over those that despise you, when those that actually cared have been unheard this entire time?
I am continuing to care only because of the number of years I’ve put into celebrating these awards. I’ve seen loved ones tell me that they are boycotting this year, and I cannot fault them. The many decisions this year have felt like countless globs of spit splash against us, without even a second thought of why this is wrong. I love the Academy Awards, but feel ashamed of them this year. It’s like seeing a loved one, like a favourite cousin or uncle, shoplift an expensive item. The unconditional love from years of association is still there, but you just can’t look at them the same way anymore. The goodness is gone. The Academy Awards were always far from perfect, but they felt like an actual attempt at an honest celebration, with international works highlights, recent care of representation, and the actual selection of some of the best films, filmmakers, and performances over the years. It all feels like the façade that many naysayers have claimed it was now. Even more than ever, I will care about the winners — no matter how they are announced — and that alone. All of the shenanigans surrounding this are more annoying than ever, and I frankly could not care less. The awards show doesn’t have to die, but the Academy Awards are like dinosaurs frolicking towards that astral object in the sky rather than taking cover: they seem inept at knowing how to stay afloat when the answers are much simpler than they make them seem. Instead, some true colours have been shown, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep justifying this show that has zero regard for its last remaining fans.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from X University (formerly known as Ryerson), as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.