91st Oscars: Ceremony

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nightwingnova
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

Post by nightwingnova »

The entire effort to "bring in the 'new' and make Oscars more 'relevant'" crashed. Many of the presenters hadn't made that much of a splash onscreen yet and were unknown.

Additionally, the musical numbers were mostly forgettable. Best Song, for now, can be reduced to three nominees.

Reza wrote:
Mister Tee wrote:So, I was busy crafting Who'll Be Back? and didn't have much time to reflect on the show after it passed...but I find one thing puzzles me in retrospect. I could understand (even while I disagreed with) most of the changes these new producers wanted to make. But why on earth did they want to jettison the tradition of last year's acting winners presenting to this year's? At least three of the people involved are as big names as most of the evening's other presenters. And why, even when they were shamed into including them, did they insist on double-teaming them, rather than letting each give out a corresponding prize? Was the opportunity to showcase Charlize Theron that much bigger a deal than Allison Janney? (If it were, you'd think a lot more people would have gone to see Tully.)
I think they crammed the four previous Oscar winners into those two slots to allow all those "new faces" a chance to present. Those new faces, I assume, was their idea of catering to today's youthful audience who are more familiar with faces from tv than any of the old stars from yore......yore being a period longer than ten years considering the attention span of most of today's young movie going public.
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

Post by Big Magilla »

Not inviting the previous year's winners was one of the sappiest ideas they had. It smacked of the "nobody remembers last year's winners" mentality. Having them double present when they finally reneged and invited them made sense only, as Tee suggests, if the reason to not invite them in the first place was to have the three no-host hostesses present the first award which almost always is to either supporting actor or supporting actress, in which case something else would have to be found for the discarded presenter to do. That forced them to come up with something that would make all four look equal in the audience's eyes. The simpler solution would have been to have the no host hostesses give out an award for something else followed by the supporting award.

The only veteran stars who were invited were Helen Mirren who was dispatched to give out an early award, Bette Midler who was invited by the songwriters to perform their nominated song, Barbra Streisand who turned down an invitation to introduce the clip from A Star Is Born and instead chose to present a clip from BlackKklansman and Samuel L. Jackson who is best known today for his Marvel character but who got his start with Spike Lee and was therefore the ideal presenter of Adapted Screenplay.

It's hard to tell whether the lack of presenters the majority of the audience born before 1990 wouldn't be all that familiar with was due to discrimination or the refusal of older stars to even want to appear given all the dismay that preceded this year's show. Despite that, though, the show did go smoothly. It was refreshing not to have the show interrupted by the host ordering snacks or shanghaiing a group of tourists who couldn't care less about the Oscars to come on stage. I would rather have no host than have a repeat of that nonsense which prolongs the show longer than presenting all the awards.
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

Post by Reza »

Mister Tee wrote:So, I was busy crafting Who'll Be Back? and didn't have much time to reflect on the show after it passed...but I find one thing puzzles me in retrospect. I could understand (even while I disagreed with) most of the changes these new producers wanted to make. But why on earth did they want to jettison the tradition of last year's acting winners presenting to this year's? At least three of the people involved are as big names as most of the evening's other presenters. And why, even when they were shamed into including them, did they insist on double-teaming them, rather than letting each give out a corresponding prize? Was the opportunity to showcase Charlize Theron that much bigger a deal than Allison Janney? (If it were, you'd think a lot more people would have gone to see Tully.)
I think they crammed the four previous Oscar winners into those two slots to allow all those "new faces" a chance to present. Those new faces, I assume, was their idea of catering to today's youthful audience who are more familiar with faces from tv than any of the old stars from yore......yore being a period longer than ten years considering the attention span of most of today's young movie going public.
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

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So, I was busy crafting Who'll Be Back? and didn't have much time to reflect on the show after it passed...but I find one thing puzzles me in retrospect. I could understand (even while I disagreed with) most of the changes these new producers wanted to make. But why on earth did they want to jettison the tradition of last year's acting winners presenting to this year's? At least three of the people involved are as big names as most of the evening's other presenters. And why, even when they were shamed into including them, did they insist on double-teaming them, rather than letting each give out a corresponding prize? Was the opportunity to showcase Charlize Theron that much bigger a deal than Allison Janney? (If it were, you'd think a lot more people would have gone to see Tully.)

Here's my wacky theory: one tradition these newfangled producers DID want to preserve was starting the evening's presentations with a supporting acting award ( on the theory "hook the audience early with a big prize"). But, because they were working without a host, yet wanted to have some Opening Monologue feel to the show's start, they were committed to having the Tina/Amy/Maya tandem present the first award (if they'd just come out and done their short bit without presenting an award, it would have been too obvious and cheesy an attempt to have a host-who-isn't-a-host). So, I'm thinking this interconnected series of circumstances led to Sam Rockwell not getting to lead off the prize-giving.

Apropos: it seems a lot of people (in the press, as well as real life) are saying they didn't much miss a host. Do we think this means they'll forgo a host next year as well -- or simply spend more time vetting before one is hired?
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

Post by Mister Tee »

Uri wrote: Am I wrong - is Cuaron the first director to be nominated/winning for a "foreign", i.e. non English speaking, film AFTER being nominated/winning for an English speaking one? (I don't consider Eastwood's nod for Letters from Iwo Jima as a precedent). I think that although technically his win is indeed a first, him being such an integral part of the American film industry (and his film being a Netflix output), somehow take out the edge of it (the same can be said about Loren, who won in the midst of having a thriving Hollywood career).
I've been meaning to respond to this and only now getting around to it.

Yes, Cuaron is the first to go English-language nomination to foreign-language nomination. The only two others who've managed both -- Lasse Hallstrom and Ang Lee -- went the other direction. Though Lee could have easily been first, had he not unexpectedly been omitted from the 1995 directors' slate for Sense and Sensibility.

And I agree fully: Cuaron's position as a director of mainstream American movies makes him an honorary American even when directing in his native language...as (you correctly note) Loren was when she won best actress, and Liv Ullmann would have been had she triumphed for Face to Face. The first person to truly win an Oscar for acting fully as a foreign-language representative was Benigni (unless you give him honorary citizenship for the Jarmusch movies, in which case it's Cotillard).
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

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We are on a private message board, Harry. I will NOT give abusers a platform to continue their abuse.
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

Post by Big Magilla »

I noticed. It was disrespectful, but not surprising.
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

Post by HarryGoldfarb »

A quick comment on the ceremony that apparently didn’t bother anyone else... the recipients of Honorary Awards were given hardly more than a few seconds on camera after their quite short video. I know the anxiety of delivering a shorter ceremony was mandatory but this felt not only rushed but actually disrespectful. They couldn’t even get in their feet to receive a round of applause. Wasn’t it enough to get these awards out of the main ceremony?
"If you place an object in a museum, does that make this object a piece of art?" - The Square (2017)
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

Post by HarryGoldfarb »

Wesley, a friendly reminder: read your Benjamin Franklin quote...
"If you place an object in a museum, does that make this object a piece of art?" - The Square (2017)
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

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More specifically, it's like someone who's mentally abusive constantly beating on the target and then showing egotistical lack of remorse or acknowledgement of the role they played in the abuse. Having an opinion is one thing, berating others for theirs and insisting that only YOU have the correct answers is an insidious form of abuse and it ends now.

It's further disgusting how the abuser not only refuses to acknowledge the abuse, but places the blame on the person being abused for not being able to handle the abuse. I will no longer tolerate that level of abuse. We're living in the 21st Century and anyone who engages in such shall be banned.

I once believed that freedom of speech meant not taking action against those who expressed opposing viewpoints, but as the last two years of the Trump administration have shown, there are not always two valid viewpoints to all issues. Mental or physical abuse is no different than expressing racist, sexist, homophobic, or theistic attacks on someone else. No, a bigot does not deserve or get to have an equal opinion. Further, an abuser does not deserve the respect of being given free rein to continue that abuse.
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

Post by ITALIANO »

True. And sometimes you simply can't accept that different opinions exist. And if they are, sadly, right, they are even less acceptable.
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

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Sometimes, you put up with something for long that you reach a breaking point.
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

Post by nightwingnova »

Is it possible he's just simply overwhelmed by the awards season? And perhaps haven't found the need to comment yet in the midst of the argument in question?

He never seemed the kind of guy who was offended by differences of opinion or turned off easily by obstinate personalities.

OscarGuy wrote:I tried to reach out to him, but haven't heard back. I think it's safe to say that another great poster was driven away by egocentric absolutism.
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

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We spoke a little bit through private messenger before everything happened. I don't know his real name so I have no way of reaching out to him. That being said, I suspect he'll come back. People have a habit of coming back after a break. I should know.
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Re: 91st Oscars: Ceremony

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I tried to reach out to him, but haven't heard back. I think it's safe to say that another great poster was driven away by egocentric absolutism.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
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