The Academy Awards®, known as the Oscars®, are the oldest, best known and famous film awards. The awards have been presented annually (the first ceremony was held in May, 1929) by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), based in Beverly Hills, California (founded in 1927).
"Except for the early years of the institution, the awards honored films made during the previous 12-month calendar year. Films also had to be over 40 minutes long to qualify as feature-length. Until 1954, the Oscars were presented mostly on a Thursday evening. From 1955 to 1958, they were presented on a Wednesday. From 1959 until 1998 the Oscars were, with a few exceptions, presented on a Monday night. Only since 1999 has the Awards ceremony taken place on a Sunday (traditionally in March). In 2004, the ceremony was moved even earlier to improve ratings and to be more relevant to the awards 'season'.
Comments About the Awards Themselves:
The establishment of the Academy (and its awards system) has had a major effect and influence upon the film industry, due to the enormous boost a nomination or award (for a film or actor) creates, by giving prestige and bottom-line profits to a studio or performer.
Studios have often engaged in expensive marketing and advertising campaigns to sway votes. The Academy has, with limited success, tried to limit the influences of pressure groups and promotion, box office gross receipts, and studio public relations and marketing on voting results. It has also attempted to limit votes for melodramatic sentimentality, atonement for past mistakes, personal popularity, and "prestige" or epic scale, but those influences have often had a decided effect upon the outcome of some of the poll results.
Unfortunately, the critical worth, artistic vision, cultural influence, and innovative qualities of many films are not given the same voting weight. Especially since the 80s, moneymaking 'formula-made' blockbusters with glossy production values have often been crowd-pleasing titans (and Best Picture winners), but they haven't necessarily been great films with depth or critical acclaim by any measure." See Tim Dirk's site for "The Worst Academy Awards Oscars" for more information.
"Like any other awards, recognitions, or "best" lists, the top nominees and winners do not necessarily reflect or objectively measure the greatest that cinematic history has to offer. Many of the most Deserving Films of All Time (see Films Without Awards) did not win Academy Awards® (and in some cases were not even included in the nominees). In addition, Top Box-Office Films aren't always guaranteed awards success either. And certain Film Genres (notably westerns, science fiction, and comedy) as well as independent films are not represented in balanced numbers throughout Oscar history." - Tim Dirks
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4 comments:
so I heard that Heath Ledger got best supporting actor for The Dark Knight. that's awesome that he's kind of becoming posthumous. has any one else noticed that when Anna Nicole Smith died no one was this devastated? I mean, given she was kind of a skank it makes a little more sense but they were both attractive people. Maybe Heath in general is just all around better. Whatever, go Heath! Go Slumdog Millionare! I mean best director and best picture? Did it deserve more? I think yess. Whatta good movie. Spain loves that movie, posters for it are aaaallll over Barcelona. :]
-zoe c
oh and the post says "Especially since the 80s, moneymaking 'formula-made' blockbusters with glossy production values have often been crowd-pleasing titans (and Best Picture winners), but they haven't necessarily been great films with depth or critical acclaim by any measure." I think Slumdog Millionare just proved that hypothesis wrong.
The thing about the Oscars that always bothers me is that you never know who exactly is nominating or voting for these films. Who exactly is this so-called “academy” that everyone is thanking so profusely? Is it film critics, actors, directors, the people nominated? I guess I think that if you have awards that are this prestigious, it would be nice to know who exactly is saying that these movies are the best of the best.
I did not see most of the movies that were nominated this year, so the awards didn’t mean a whole lot to me, and I can’t really object to the picks as a result.
I didn't get to watch it but I saw some of it on the internet. The dresses were UGLY. Seriously if I was a fashion critic I would be crying my eyes out and writing so much crud about everyone! But I would spare the people who did have nice outfits. Mainly the men looked nice and some women. But Angelina Jolie looked great. As always. =]
I agree with Zoe and I'm very happy that he won an award for best supposrting actor. But! I think BOLT should have won best Animated feature. Though WaLLE wasn't bad, I just liked BOLT better.
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