Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

Post by OscarGuy »

Since Rotten Tomatoes isn't necessarily well liked, I'll also cite MetaCritic. That said, Black Panther on RT average rating is 8.2, which is quite good for an 87% fresh rating.

Black Panther has an 88 from MetaCritic, which includes no negative or mixed reviews and 90 from Manohla Dargis, Kenneth Turan and David Edelstein.
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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

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Reza wrote:
Okri wrote:
Don't know why and where this idea of "Black Panther" being deemed a possible best picture nominee stemmed from. Was it because it made a shit load of money?

I think the only nod it deserves is for it's striking costume design.
Its not just the box office (over 1.3 billion worldwide). The critical response which was rapturous. 97-98% on Rotten Tomatoes for what its worth.
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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

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Okri wrote:Okay, since I tossed this question out there, I should respond before it gets completely stale (after all, it’s not happening right now anyway). Sasha Stone wrote a screed that you should read, if only to make what I say below sound more reasonable.

a) I’ve not bothered watching the last three Oscars live. I only watched clips of 2016 and a few speeches from 2015 and 2017.
b) I’ve seen three Marvel movies

It was this BJ comment, though, that intrigued me: “if the members of the Academy deem Black Panther to be worthy of a nomination for Best Picture, they should vote for it. If not, they should vote for something else. The idea that this movie is somehow more entitled to a Best Picture nomination than anything — and any Oscar voter who doesn’t think so is a failed Academy member — is starting to get on my nerves.”

Okay. But I’ve also observed my own interest in the Oscars decline somewhat startlingly over the last decade, even when they’ve made choices I’m enthusiastic about. In 2007 when the stunning slate of foreign films was overlooked I actually felt that yes, the AMPAS voters failed. When they voted for The Reader over the Dark Knight I felt the same way. I find that as I get older, I’ve grocked less and less with films made for AMPAS pleasure (though you get years like 2016 or 2017 where that is proven false).

Now, I doubt The Black Panther will “deserve” a best picture nomination (in that the year would have to be 2008 level weak for me to consider it as a top five film), but will it be better than a chunk of the slate? Probably. But will it engender the same level of teeth-gnashing? I doubt it and I have to admit that bugs me.
Don't know why and where this idea of "Black Panther" being deemed a possible best picture nominee stemmed from. Was it because it made a shit load of money?

I think the only nod it deserves is for it's striking costume design.
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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

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Okay, since I tossed this question out there, I should respond before it gets completely stale (after all, it’s not happening right now anyway). Sasha Stone wrote a screed that you should read, if only to make what I say below sound more reasonable.

a) I’ve not bothered watching the last three Oscars live. I only watched clips of 2016 and a few speeches from 2015 and 2017.
b) I’ve seen three Marvel movies

It was this BJ comment, though, that intrigued me: “if the members of the Academy deem Black Panther to be worthy of a nomination for Best Picture, they should vote for it. If not, they should vote for something else. The idea that this movie is somehow more entitled to a Best Picture nomination than anything — and any Oscar voter who doesn’t think so is a failed Academy member — is starting to get on my nerves.”

Okay. But I’ve also observed my own interest in the Oscars decline somewhat startlingly over the last decade, even when they’ve made choices I’m enthusiastic about. In 2007 when the stunning slate of foreign films was overlooked I actually felt that yes, the AMPAS voters failed. When they voted for The Reader over the Dark Knight I felt the same way. I find that as I get older, I’ve grocked less and less with films made for AMPAS pleasure (though you get years like 2016 or 2017 where that is proven false).

Now, I doubt The Black Panther will “deserve” a best picture nomination (in that the year would have to be 2008 level weak for me to consider it as a top five film), but will it be better than a chunk of the slate? Probably. But will it engender the same level of teeth-gnashing? I doubt it and I have to admit that bugs me.
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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

Post by Reza »

Okri wrote:Wouldn't it be funny if they were categories Black Panther won?
Don't think the Academy will take that chance if Black Panther is nominated for a slew of technical categories. This year they will probably relegate the short awards to the commercials for starters.
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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

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I had hopeful expectations that a reversal would happen. After all, the original announcement was made during Mercury retrograde.
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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

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It is highly ironic that it is the craft categories where the most popular films rack up most of their nominations.
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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

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Wouldn't it be funny if they were categories Black Panther won?
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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

Post by Franz Ferdinand »

"It's expected that it's the crafts categories as well as the three short-film categories that will be relegated to the non-live presentations, but the Academy said today that the affected categories would rotate from year to year, presumably so that none of the crafts branches feel they are being permanently moved to the commercial-break status."

Can't wait to see the year when the Acting, Directing and Picture categories are the "affected" ones.
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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

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As lots of us predicted. The New Coke of its time.
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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

Post by Precious Doll »

Mister Tee wrote:
Big Magilla wrote:
Mister Tee wrote:And moving it up to early February? Good god: there'll be no time to see the foreign/documentary nominees. And the precursor season, which already feels like fraternity rush, will be crammed into an even tighter window.
Is there time now?
Even last year, I only watched Faces Places, The Breadwinner and Strong Island in the 72 hours before the show. Never did get to Last Man in Aleppo. And I'm pretty sure I saw at least 2-3 of the foreigns in the 10 days prior.

A possibly encouraging sign: all of these changes are getting fiercely negative reaction from Oscar pundits and bloggers, including the ones who most often advocate for more populist policies (like nominating comic book movies). And the tone in many of the pieces is viciously mocking. There may be WAY more pushback on this than the Board of Governors expected. I wouldn't be surprised if, among other things, some of the tech branches threatened a boycott if they're pushed off air.
I meant to mention these posts before and missed them.

It's utterly ridiculous for the Academy voting members to be expected to sit through the volumes of film they are expected to watch in a shorter time frame. Someone on Goldderby was also saying that the BFTAs will be moving their awards ceremony forward in 2020. I prefer the good old days when the BFTAS were after the Oscars and most of the winners were British myself. Since they have been trying to copy the Oscars they have become one of the worst things possible: a clone comlete with implants and botox.

Academy members have lives and most of them don't revolve around much 3 or 4 films every day for a couple of weeks. Hell, they might be working on a project, having family over (its that time of year), going on holidays themselves or simply not up to it. People get sick too and if you happen to be unwell with a pile of DVDs next to the bed and you don't feel like watching them - your unlikely too.

I think I can speak with some authority with watching a large volume of films in a short period of time - it gets tiresome and very quickly. During June for 12 days straight I watched just over 30 films at the Sydney Film Festival. I'm currently in Melbourne with tomorrow to be my last day and all going well will have watched 41 films over by the end of tomorrow night. I could stay another 5 days and watch some other films I'd like to see but I'm sick of it and I want to go home - I have had ENOUGH. 3 weeks after we get home we then fly to Portugal for 6 weeks and little if no cinema the whole time - bliss.

I've also decided to pretty much can Melbourne, at best we would come down for a day or two and see the one film most wanting to see and to hell with the rest. And to tell the truth my very first day and both the Sydney & Melbourne film festivals this year were meet with a feeling of 'I don't want to do this'. I've been going to the Sydney one since 1980 and with age it gets more tiring and the realty is that all the stuff that I want to see the most will turn up in cinemas or on DVD/Blu Ray in the next 12 months and I get to save all that money that I spend on expensive meals, accommodation, etc. So the Academy shorting the viewing time is not going to go down well with members (as least with film festival audiences its self inflicted) and we are likely to get the most boring and predictable results possible.
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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

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So, I think it's kind of sweet that, the very week the Academy highlighted the dire need to acknowledge Popular Movies, filmgoers of America turned out en masse for a ridiculous movie about a giant shark.

#EmmysforSharknado
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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

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It's sort of weird because last Oscar season I had and still have serious thoughts of scrapping seeing some the minor categories.

I'd figured it was the 90th year and that would be a good time to stop seeing just about everything nominated, save Film, Director, Acting, Screenplays, Foreign Language Films and a few of the technical awards which I would continue. Save me some time and money trying to track certain titles down, etc and more time for other things to enjoy in life. Whilst I don't religiously watch the show its these sorts of changes that will very well cause me to turn my back on the Oscars - such a shame as they have given so much pleasure over the years. But if the downgrade them, there really won't be any point continuing to take anything more than a passing interest at best.
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Re: Major Changes to Oscar Telecast

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I'll always love the idea of the Academy Awards and the concept of awarding the very best in quality even though that concept has been flawed from the very beginning with studio and later guild politics dictating nominations and affecting wins throughout its history, but the show itself is another matter.

We're long past the day when the only place to see major stars was on the Oscars. Nowadays there are no major stars anyway and the performers we do see are the same ones we've seen throughout awards season. Last year they not only couldn't find 90 former winners to gather for a 90th anniversary portrait, they didn't even try. The magic is gone. Dumbing down the show even further is like performing an autopsy. It can't hurt the deceased to cut him or her open. They're already dead.

Its been a slow death with outside and inside forces contributing equally to the demise.

From outside we have the change in the way movies are distributed. We go from New Year's Day thorugh Labor Day on a diet of cheesy horror movies, dumb comedies and action hero franchise event films. Anything of quality that comes along in this period is strictly by accident. Then we have the diversion of film festivals at which a couple dozen films of potential quality are shown and then dumped into theatres all at the same time in October and November with a handful reserved for year-end release. Those year-end releases, though, had better have figured into the precursor awards that begin in early December or they won't draw much business or traction with Academy members who don't go out to see anything anymore anyway. They simply wait for their screeners to arrive and then for the msot part just watch the ones that have drawn the most noise.

From the inside we have the changes in the show's format. We have the removal of the honorary Oscars from the regular presentation, the only thing that in lean years gave the show its distinction. We have the expansion of up to ten nominees for Best Picture, but then we don't have ten nominees suggesting that there aren't ten films worthy of nomination so what was the point? We have the extended membership, which is nice, but at the same time we have the cleansing of the membership rolls making older, non-active members feel unwanted even though movies are still in their DNA. There's no passion in the Academy leadership. There's no Frank Capra, Bette Davis or Gregory Peck at the helm. Why isn't a Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep or Tom Hanks president of the Academy?

These latest change proposals may be dumb, but they can't hurt the corpse. It's too late to save the soul that inhabited it.
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