Sunday night for college students typically means cramming to finish all the procrastinated weekend work. However, on occasion Sundays can mean watching America’s guilty pleasures: award shows.
These shows are highly televised and have become a ritualized practice for the creative many to tune into. Simply put, they are the Super Bowls for art majors. While it's always a satisfying night when you can criticize the high end fashion choices of the wealthy, in recent years the shows have become more about the celebrities congratulating each other than actually honoring worthy candidates. Harsh, I know, but someone had to say it. In consideration of this pop culture boy’s club trend in modern award shows I feel it is necessary to direct the focus on the two shows that gather the most publicity: the Grammy’s and the Oscars.
Honoring the years best in music and motion pictures seems like a popular and uniting event for American (and international) audiences. Unfortunately, in the case of the Grammy’s and Oscars, it has become just another popularity contest. Welcome back, high school. And just as in high school when you could guess the prom king and queen, the winners at award shows have become just as predictable.
This is where the real issue arises in award shows: Why watch a three-hour program when you can foresee the outcome? I mean, the Emmy’s and MTV Video Music Awards are somewhat giveaways for Grammy and Oscar nominations, but it seems as though in recent years there has always emerged a frontrunner who will sweep all the categories. Take for example Sam Smith, who admittedly does have the voice of a British angel but was a clear winner at the Grammy’s simply based on the publicity and awards already surrounding him. I mean if award winners were based on radio air time, then “Stay With Me” would win for the next three years. Am I right?
The Oscars frontrunner is usually more or less unknown until the actual show begins. However, after the first award is given the nights winner quickly emerges and begins sweeping the categories. Then the audience is left sitting through every thank you speech from the same winner and begins wondering if their time is being spent wisely. (As you can tell I’m still bitterm about 2009’s Slumdog Millionaire earning eight Academy Awards.)
That being said, the 2015 Oscars do seem somewhat promising as the movies nominated this year are surprisingly varied and all highly creative pieces. Despite the masterful creativity arising this year, there will emerge a frontrunner because at this point it is ingrained in voters to favor a certain film. In past years that has meant over dramatic period pieces usually receive the most recognition (mostly out of sympathy) and that leaves creative and original pieces left in the dust. What is a refreshing element to this year’s Oscars is that the films nominated are either comedies or biographies of worthy subjects. Movies like Boyhood, Birdman, and The Grand Budapest Hotel are creative and original storylines that have been receiving critical acclaim for their new direction in filming. Equally, nominations for movies like American Sniper, The Theory of Everything, Selma, and The Imitation Game are celebrated for undertaking difficult subject material.
While these movies are worthy of nominations, there lies a central problem: These are the only movies nominated. Now I know that 2014-2015 wasn’t fundamentally changing in motion pictures, but the Academy Awards are able to nominate ten films for best picture, so why stop short at eight? Two films questionably not nominated were Foxcatcher and Unbroken. After much deliberation I think it has become clear why these films were snubbed. Its just another case of the popularity contest, except these films were sparred the embarrassment. The exclusion of Foxcatcher and Unbroken is simply because the winner is already chosen and there is no need for more placeholders.
Who is the winner you ask? Well, given the amount of nominations and the results of preceding shows, Birdman is a nearly obvious frontrunner this year. Now this prediction may ruin or make your day, but in any case it is an educated guess based on the pattern of how modern award shows work. Always bank with the popular choice.
This being said, I will most likely still watch these shows -- if just to critique the fashion choices -- but I believe that this pattern is becoming a toxic one for creativity. If the popular piece is always going to sweep the categories and cause neglect toward the other nominations then that will soon become a large deterrent for emerging artists. This will cause those said artists to favor the popular option in order to receive the awards then actually apply new and original ideas to their work. By favoring the highly publicized piece of the year, award shows are ignoring the creativity of the other nominations and completely snubbing the unseen talent out there.
The trouble with award shows is that they confirm the promise that sticking to the path of least resistance will lead to success, in turn diminishing originality. It is this current trend that will effect the future of award shows and eventually completely deter audiences from watching them unless they are able to recognize new faces and new ideas.
Happy Award Season!
