The 82nd annual awards ceremony took place just over a week ago and showcased surprise winners and not-so-surprising wins. But I don’t want to talk about that. I take it the winners have been carefully selected by the best experts in the world, in the US? Local? It does not matter. What I want to talk about is the show, the Oscars of 2010.
The hosts
I was really looking forward to the ceremony this year. I knew it was going to be a great year for film with the releases of Avatar, Up, and Inglorious Basterds. So when I sat down in front of my television that night (it aired locally at 2 a.m., European time), I was expecting fireworks. Instead, I was treated with perhaps the worst decisions in Oscar’s history.
Let’s start with the hosts. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin did a fantastic job opening the show. Their jokes were quite funny to me, but I imagine they weren’t for some of the nominees. Most of their jokes were aimed at individuals, focusing on their faults, appearance, personality, or background. The problem with that is that it can actually hurt the people at whom the joke is aimed. Another bad thing was that the hosts became invisible after the first prank parade. They made some short appearances and closed the show, but that was about it. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin did a great job, but why them? Prior to the event, the academy leaders—gray-haired men in square shirts—decided the show should attract more young viewers. Well, then why Steve and Alec? They’re not exactly the heroes for teens in tough times these days. they should’
Award for best film
The 82nd Academy Awards were the first in years to have 10 nominees for the Best Picture category. I found that pretty useless because there are usually two or three really good movies. 10 is clearly too far; simply put, we should be lucky if five really good movies come out in a year, let alone 10. To make matters worse, the Oscars folks—the grey ones with square shirts—thought it would be a genius idea to focus on the movie nominees overnight just before intermission. Well, it wasn’t a great idea. First of all, introducing a movie nominee isn’t the most exciting part of the Oscars, so people were more likely to switch channels for a while knowing the break would come right after. And second, it made for an awkward moment at the end. The highlight of the Oscars are for me four awards: best director, actor, actress, and best picture. But now at the end, a man tacked to the podium and suddenly said: “And the Oscar goes to…” I mean, where was the big moment that built up all the tension? The academy awards a movie the greatest honour of all, and I thought, “Oh yes, that’s it.” They’ve already introduced the movies, so yeah. Great grey-haired men in action, the highlight of the night was ruined by a sudden burst of two lines that defined the biggest winner of the night.
I just don’t understand what they were thinking. The hosts were great, but completely the opposite of what the academy wanted. Plus, they seemed to realise that halfway through and decided to keep the hosts backstage for most of the evening. But worse is the award for best film. It’s the most important award, and now it’s gone faster than the Oscar for best sound mix, which hardly anyone cares about. Better luck next time with the Academy Awards, folks.
