Another Oscar Question...

[vania]

I've always had sort of an issue with the Oscars. This is the most coveted award-- the highest honor, supposedly. But, in order to get one, you've got to.... campaign?? Hello?? Something about that just seems very wrong and corrupt to me. If the Oscars are supposed to be awarded to "THE BEST," how can you campaign for that?? It would be like an Olympic runner campaigning for the gold medal even though his time was slower than someone else's.

Which brings me to my second point:

Is it really possible to decide "the best" actor, actress, or movie, anyway? How can you take two actors, give them wildly varying roles in different movies, and decide who did the better job? How can you take wildy varying movies of different genres and definitively name one of them "The Best?"

So, in that case, maybe campaigning IS the way to go.... but it still seems like somewhat of a farce to me.

Just my two cents...

v.

[poseidon]

Valerie,

The Oscars, the Golden Globes, the Emmy Awards, etc. are all nothing more than a chance for Hollywood to pat itself on the back. Perhaps you're not aware, but there are something along the lines of 400 awards shows each year having to do with the entertainment industry. That's more than one a day. There have never been such a bunch of self-serving, self-patrionizing hypocrites as exist in the entertainment industry. Even politicians don't get that many accolades, even amongst themselves.

Jeff

[vania]

Yes, I agree. (Even posted a thread about the AFI awards and how unnecessary all of this hoopla is.)

It would just be great if there were just ONE awards show that wasn't unnecessary, one that would actually be an HONOR to win.

But, alas, that just doesn't seem to be the case.

v.

[dijinn]

I would make the comparison between The Oscars and Epinions. Basically both are entertainment. And both are all about pushing movies people haven’t seen yet. So there is a large portion of the show that is only about Hollywood self-promoting itself in hopes that we will continue to believe how important it is. (Why do perfume sales continue to come to mind here?)

And yet at the same time The Oscars introduce me to a number of movies I wouldn't see normally... take Il Postino for example. Many foreign films get a short shrift here in America. But what a marvelous movie - and I don't think I'd heard of it before The Oscars.

In my humble opinion The Oscars are the only awards show that don't seem to be an embarrassment to win. Know what I mean? Many of the 400 awards shows Poseidon mentioned select the obvious choice or the popular choice and it becomes a Prom Queen type downward spiral fiasco.

At the end of the day it's one more night of entertainment created by the entertainment community for the entetainment community.

Dij

A quick addition... While reading an article posted by Grouch about New Line's decision to add a sneak peak to The Two Towers on the currently running Fellowship of the Ring I thought the fact that they were waiting til the day after The Oscars to add it very interesting. I think they will do an enormous ad blitz to coincide with The Oscars, as well as this new sneak peek of The Two Towers to add to their coffers. I find it amazing they have already made their money back on the production of ALL THREE FILMS. Yikes. Hey, more power to 'em.

[kurt_messick]

There are few honours in the world that don't involve campaigning in some regard. It may not be the person/organisation itself doing the campaigning, but in fact there has to be someone interested who gets a sufficient number of other people interested enough in giving the award. That creates the perfect condition for campaigning. Add the heat of media spotlights, and our testtube overfloweth...