Yes folks its ‘Oscar’ time! A time when the masses of the Self Important will all gather together and clamor for these little statues called 'Oscars' for validation of a job well done. That moment when fellow actors and directors and the like, get all dolled up and jump into their fancy and yes expensive cars, and on to a gala event where other entertainment snobs get together to celebrate the very 'BEST' of entertainment for that year. (Or so they would have you believe).
What’s interesting is that most of these films are either very mediocre or performed very poorly at the box office.
The pictures up for "BEST PICTURE" are ok choices I suppose. But were they the best? And who decides WHICH films are the ‘best’?
Well...The academy of course!! And who is the "academy"? Well anyone of importance, don’t you know! Directors, actors, screenwriters, producers, critics and the people that know a thing or two about creating a great movie. The problem is that...well...they rarely do.
Yes. The academy jury is overseen by itself. Now you tell me, what criminal wouldn’t want to judge itself?
So how are the awards picked for nominations? How are they chosen for the awards?
Are they chosen for the box office return?
No.
Are they chosen because they truly ARE the very best of the year? That must be it! Yes?
No.
Often times, really more often than not, they are chosen for awards in the very same way that the studio heads and chiefs choose what films are to be MADE.
And that is based on what they can talk about at their hollywood cocktail parties. Or as they hobnob amongst themselves at whatever event.
What is chosen are often times movies that are in the 'bio pick' realm. Or the melodrama. Or the down right over the top political message. (the more leftist the message the more chance you HAVE for an Oscar--Keep that in mind if you are a new filmmaker, cutting your teeth on a cal-art student film).
For an award, it DOES NOT need to be a film that is a 'moneymaker'. Nope. Or even a success on any level. What they want is the social scene conversation maker. Something that they can open a conversation with:
""""Yes..I am SO going to make a movie about blah blah, because it is something that I think really, REALLY must be brought to the attention of society... """ Cut to adoring socialite crowd sipping their $600.00 champagne, "oooo'ing" and "ahhh'ing" about how deep he/she is.
Now I know that some of my hollywood pals/drones/cogs, are saying "oh Handel, Your such a dickweed. How can you say that 'bank-ability' has nothing to do with the choices of what is made and what isn’t?"
Well. We’ve had this conversation before, So let me sum it up. Out of allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the movies out this year, And there has been a crap load. (And I use that term quite literally).
But when you look at the box office returns for the year. Seven (7) out of the ten top moneymakers are either 'family fare' or 'family friendly' movies. But when you line them up against the throngs of more adult nature films, compare the numbers of how many movies are made on each genre, They (family friendly) -are dwarfed by comparison.
NOW.....IF it were that
Well obviously yeah. IF it were about 'Entertainment'. And successfully entertaining an audience.
But it isn’t.
Which goes back to my original point? It is more about bragging rights on the social scene, than having a film that is successful AND well done.
I mean really, Is "million dollar baby" MORE entertaining than Brad Birds "The INCREDIBLES",
Is Clint Eastwood any better a director than Brad Bird? I would argue that Brad Bird could do a film like ‘million dollar baby’ much easier than squinty clinty could do a film such as the "INCREDIBLES".
But instead, the 'animated' film/family film is thrown a bone and given its own category as "best animated film". “””"NO...you must not sit with us here dah'link, you go sit at the kiddies table””".
Even though the "INCREDIBLES" beat 'baby' by a mere 16O MILLION (aprox).
And "Spiderman" beat it by 273 MILLION!
And that is the way it is year after year with family friendly movies beating out others profit wise taking 5-8 slots of the top ten -----EVERY single year.
It aint bouts' the money honey. It taint bouts' the money. It’s about Street cred, or latte cred (this IS
So when you are watching the awards tonight, (of which I never do--save for once; 1991; to see "Beauty and the Beast” rightfully get nominated and read aloud. Knowing it would never win. But it was fun to watch diseases such as barbara streisand wince in their seats when a ‘cartoon’ was named).
....when watching tonight, keep this in mind:
These are the mediocre, showing up to award the mediocre, FOR the mediocre.
The empty rewarding the empty.. For the worthless.
You want further proof? Let’s see if al gore gets an award tonight. Ya wanna bet? huh? Do ya?
HA!
