Can We Take The Oscars Seriously Anymore?

Does anyone else agree that if you're still watching the Oscars, you're still taking them seriously? I think if you don't take them seriously, you wouldn't be watching.

This is simply not true. I watched the Oscars, because, like them or not, they are the most prestigious, well known awards relating to something that I love - films. Everyone knows there will be awards you'll be extremely unhappy with, and sometimes better films lose out, but I think most people just accept this, don't take it to seriously, and watch it for the spectacle and sometimes even the surprise. That, and it is fun to make predictions.

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Ditto

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Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

I don't watch them, I sit here with you good people and chat while you all tell me who's winning what.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Me too.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

The ceremony itself is struggling for relevance. Many great films and performances get ignored simply as they don't fit into the worthy life drama category which the Academy with an average age of 2107 thinks is Oscar worthy. The best film or performance barely ever wins.

That said it is getting better...just very slowly. It wont truly change until the new breed make up more of the academy.

Like it or not The Oscars are the breakfast of champions.
Aside from in the moment politics, the Oscar voters are all professionals and sometimes view movies a ted differently from you and me ( not really me ). Most of the time, they get the nominations right and that serves as a good barometer to watch movies.
I haven't missed an Oscar in 20 years, nor have I missed Miss Universe nor the colege football Bowl games.
Besides, it's a chance to see the happening crowd, enjoy a laugh or two and occassionaly marvel at an original production.

*Self-proclaimed champions

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Mubi

Well, the Oscars do have the longest and most-storied history of any film award, so it's certainly historically-significant. You can care more about other awards, but most people complain about the results of all awards. If you somehow agree with all or even most of an organization or publication's film awards, you're probably brainwashed or giving them out yourself.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

I've never watched the Oscars and only have a cursory look through the newspapers the next day to see who won what. The fact that some of my favourite films such as Terminator 2 and Pulp Fiction never won best picture Oscars and Denzel never got the nod for his Malcolm X portrayal screams TRAVESTY!!

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"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"

"I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle"

Not wrong in many respects though the fact still remains that due to their average age, their demographic tastes can often move them away from certain types of movie or performances.

This is why an average Clint Eastwood film is more likely to get a best picture nom (he is one of their mates) than say a seminal genre picture like The Dark Knight.

Another example (not meaning to weigh a certain way, sorry) but Nolan's work on Inception was debately much more tricky and accomplished than say Tom Hooper on the Kings Speech (great film but performance led with traditional and workmanlike direction in many ways, not half as much of a challenge IMO).

It is getting better (the larger best picture category for example) but slowly.

There's not a whole lot of sincerity to the Oscars, and there's very little reason to believe the case has ever been anything different. I'd refer to the Oscars as an example of the stereotypical movie-fan, in that, it's somebody that loves foreign-moves or ones that seem to have an artsier value because he or she thinks it will make the popular consensus be that they are well-cultured. They'll ignore other great-movies, simply because they think they're somehow below them. In other-words, **** the Oscars, and **** myself for going to watch them.

This is why I watch them. They're bloated and kinda crass and winners/losers are essentially irrelevant - I don't concern myself over them. But boy the melodrama is fun to watch. Fertile ground for humour, too.

Why do people get angry, take it so personally, and genuinely care what films get awarded, surely you know what to expect going in. I think to some extent, if you actually sat down and looked at the award winners, they are largely understandable/justifiable choices if look at the bigger picture and reasons why they might have been chosen, whether you agree or not

When Hurt Locker won over Avatar,I lost all respect for The Oscars.

^I haven’t seen it in years but I’m kind of surprised Avatar even got a BP nomination. It’s not a particularly deep or meaningful movie and it getting a best picture nod seems as unlikely as something like 2012 or The Avengers being nominated. Although, I admit I’m kind of biased against Avatar though since it always seemed like a dumbed down version of Princess Mononoke set in space to me. Avatar is a decent enough movie but it works on a visual level and nothing else in my opinion.

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You will find that if you look for the light, you can often find it. But if you look for the dark, that is all you will ever see.
Iroh

That must have really pissed off the Oscars.

They never called him again!

The main thing about taking the Oscars seriously is that you do it with your outrage as much as with your agreement. To be outraged over their choices is to admit that what they choose matters. If it didn't, there'd be no reason to be upset at all.

I don't care about about the technical stuff or meaningful movies.For me,a purpose of a movie is to entertain.In that way,Avatar was the only movie that I felt deserved to be watched in theatres.When I came out of the theatre,I was like "Wow"


Whether I agree or not,The Oscars are pretty much the most prestigious award when it comes to movies.I don't watch them.Just see on the newspapers the next day to see who won the important awards.

To give the Oscar to a movie that almost no one heard of didn't seem right.