Reflections on a Golden Statuette

“In Hollywood, it’s all about money 364 days of the year and all about art on just one night of the year — Oscar night.” 

Feel free to quote me on that! I’ve been saying this for years.

Ironic, isn’t it? But it explains my love/hate relationship with the Academy Awards.  

Being a lifelong movie buff and a professional movie critic for several decades, part of me has always been drawn to the sparkle and magic of everything Hollywood: the movies, the stars, the legendary stories and of course the annual event that celebrated it all in grand splendor.

Growing up, the Academy Awards telecast was a very big deal: an opportunity to see all the stars all dressed up in snazzy tuxedos and sparkling gowns accepting their Oscar statuettes and giving lengthy speeches that seemed to thank everyone they had ever met.

It didn’t matter to me. They were Hollywood gods and goddesses descending from their lofty Hollywood mansions to mingle with the masses of mere movie mortals on one, glorious night.  

There were celebrity hosts. There were lavish production numbers. There was the unbearable suspense that gripped a worldwide audience following the slow tearing of the envelope and the immortal words, “And the winner is . . . “

But, over the years the luster gradually began to wear off. The more serious I became about movies, the more I began to see that the Academy Awards weren’t necessarily about honoring what I considered the “best.”                          

I realized the awards process could be tainted by money and politics. Books have been written about this over the years —  “Oscar Wars,” by Michael Schulman, is a good one.

Year after year, the movies that make the most money at the box office — in other words, the movies that audiences actually went to see — are often passed over when the Oscar nominations are announced. 

Instead, highbrow “art films” find themselves in the running.  

“The Brutalist” and “Emilia Perez” are great examples this year. “The Brutalist” grossed $14 million domestically and “Emilia Perez” made $15 million in the U.S.

Compare that to fan favorites like “Deadpool & Wolverine” or “Gladiator II,” which earned $637 million and $173 million, respectively, in the U.S. Both were puzzlingly passed over, despite their enormous popularity.

It makes you wonder what the TV ratings would be like if more popular movies were in the running each year. Ratings are the name of the game.

The highest rated Academy Awards show in recent memory is the year that “Titanic” won 11 Oscars, including best picture.  It was one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, earning $674 million domestically and a staggering $1.8 billion worldwide.  It ran for months in theaters.  Fans went back to see it multiple times. And they tuned in to see it win a pile of Oscars.

One of my biggest pet peeves about the Oscars has to do with the category of best picture, which rarely also wins the categories of best screenplay, best director, best actor and best actress.  Shouldn’t the best picture of the year have had the best script, direction and acting performances of the year as well? If not, what qualified it to be the Best Picture?

Interestingly, only a handful of movies over the years have actually swept the top five awards. They include Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night” (1934), “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) and “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991), which was partially shot here in Pittsburgh. I know that because I was a background extra.

Despite the flaws and “shortcomings” — referring to David Niven’s famous quip when a streaker ran onto the stage behind him during the 46^th Oscars show in 1974 — I will admittedly be watching Sunday’s show, which starts at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on ABC-TV.  Old habits die hard (forgive the Bruce Willis reference).  

I suspect it’s political, with a good deal of behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing. Oscar wins can boost box office revenues. I get that.

I know there will be a couple of shocker moments on March 2 that no one predicted, which is why I have given up on the futility of predicting the Oscar winners each year — people take that WAY too seriously.

This year, I hope the fashions are fabulous, the stars all fall from the skies to descend on the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood Sunday, and that a few truly deserving films earn the Oscars they truly deserve.   

I also pray that the impromptu, hyperventilated acceptance speeches fall far short of setting Guinness Book World Records for their rambling length.

Here’s a very telling, parting trivia question pertaining to the impact and significance of the Academy Awards: Can you name the best picture of 2024?

It was “Oppenheimer.”  Funny how the biggest winner of the biggest movie award on the planet is often forgotten a year later.

Enjoy all the fanfare Sunday night!  Just don’t take it too seriously.  

BEST PICTURE NOMINEES