Tag: Best Picture

It’s Hollywood award season, blah blah blah blah blah!

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It’s award season and Hollywood is all abound with red carpets, dazzling lights, gorgeous gowns and million dollar jewelry on the stars of your favorite movies. Top it all off with a dash of politics, a smidgen of hypocrisy, and a lot of self-inflation and you have the Academy Awards.

At one time, these award shows garnished millions of viewers as people looked forward to seeing their favorite celebrities win top honors. The last time the Oscars had top ratings was in 2004 when Billy Crystal hosted the ceremonies. That year, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won Best Picture and the award show had 43.5 million viewers. This year, Oscar hit an all time low with only 23.6 million viewers.

Part of it (besides the hypocritical slant of rich actors standing on their soapbox telling everyday people how to live) seems to be that more movies get picked for their “artistic” vibe and not box office records. I mean, doesn’t that make a movie a success… The people who spend the money to go see a movie again and again. Am I right? I mean, Parasite, a foreign language film from Korea, won Best Picture. I never even heard of it before. Plus, they nominated The Irishman, a movie made for Netflix. Are we now counting streaming services the same as box office movies?

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The standard seems to have gone down dramatically from the days of Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and On the Waterfront. I understand the world is changing and streaming services are now a part of everyday life. But what has it done to improve the quality of movies? Absolutely nothing. Does the success of these movies affect its award? No, because some really, really bad or unknown movies make it to the award stage.

Back in the heyday of Hollywood, it was the top grossing movies that made it to the Oscars. Now, all you have to do is be downloaded a few times on Netflix and you get an Oscar nod. Now, I’ll admit, I haven’t seen Parasite, nor am I interested in seeing it. But they are saying that this movie is better than 1917 (Hell no), Ford vs Ferrari (no), Joker (no, no), Little Women (eh, maybe), etc., etc. It’s a joke.

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I mean, think about it. Do you know what the top movies of 2019 were? Avengers: Endgame, The Lion King, Frozen II, Spider-Man: Far from Home, Captain Marvel, Joker, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and Toy Story 4, and that’s only the top 8. Out of those 8, only Joker was nominated for Best Picture, and Toy Story 4 won Best Animated Film. The rest were locked out. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was #23, 1917 was #29, and Ford vs. Ferrari was #39. Little Women ranked #1201 out of 1300 films released in 2019. And this movie was nominated for Best Picture. Best Picture! Really?

It’s a joke. I’m sorry, but it’s a joke. It’s Hollywood’s way of patting itself on the back and giving each other high fives, but otherwise, it’s a freakin’ joke. I know I’m ranting here, and I shouldn’t be, but it just makes you wonder why we have award shows anyway.

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Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase as a paperback/ebook at Amazon. The Dark Tides is available for purchase as a paperback/ebook at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iUniverse Publishing. The Outlander War, Book Three of the Forever Avalon series will be released on 28 February 2020 from Austin Macauley Publishing.

I can honestly say I HATE the Academy Awards because they just can’t get it right

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Image result for oscar nominees in 2018The nominations for the Academy Awards were released and, once again, Hollywood proved that it is nothing like the legacy it left in the rear view mirror. I can make my point with one, pertinent fact… In 1939, a majority of the top grossing motion pictures (Gone with the Wind, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Mr. Smith goes to Washington, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach) were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. This year, ZERO of the top grossing films were nominated.

In a year where women’s issues are at the forefront in Hollywood, the only movie with a woman as the director, producer and star (WONDER WOMAN, hint hint) didn’t receive a single nomination. Why? Why? Why?

This is why I don’t watch the Academy Awards anymore. I don’t recognize half the movies, actors or actresses nominated. Some of these movies are independent releases with no showtimes in theaters around the country except in big cities. At one time, you would hear the songs nominated for best song on the radio. Now, I recognize one song on this list and its only because of the movie trailer (“This is Me” from The Greatest Showman).

Although they added a Best Animated Feature category, the top animated film in 2017 (Despicable Me 3) wasn’t nominated. I don’t even recognize two of the films nominated and one of the films (Ferdinand) wasn’t released until the very end of 2017. I just don’t get it.

I think this is one of the reasons I watch a lot of Turner Classic Movies. You can’t compare Hollywood of today to the Golden Age of Hollywood. There are a lot of the usual comparisons (womanizing, to make a point) but  there is also a lot of class from that era you don’t see today. It’s a bygone era where Hollywood heroes enlisted to serve their country at war, entertained the troops not protested against them, and stood for something besides their own self worth.

Image result for red carpet with a bag o n their headHere’s a great example. In the old days of Hollywood, actors and actresses wouldn’t wear a bag over their head on the red carpet to make a political statement or wear a t-shirt emblazoned with the words “Poverty is Sexist” on it. Using award shows for politics is everyday today. Expect this year to be no exception, especially with President Trump in the White House. I think the best example of this is in 1973, when Vanessa Redgrave won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Julia. She used her acceptance speech to get back at the “Zionist Hoodlums” who spoke out against her documentary, The Palestinian, which portrayed the Palestinian Liberation Organization in a sympathetic light.

She was followed by iconic author, playwright, and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. He said, “I would like to say — personal opinion, of course — that I am sick and tired of people exploiting the occasion of the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own personal political propaganda.” In 24 years, Hollywood still hasn’t learned anything. They’re only doing it louder via social media now.

So, as we follow the yellow brick road to “tinsel town” one more time, I hope that Hollywood had learned its lesson and go back to making the Academy Awards about the movies and us, the fans, not about themselves.

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51nd6H6sATL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_SKU-000941753Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase as a book/ebook at Amazon. The Dark Tides is available for purchase as a book/ebook at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iUniverse publishing. The Outlander War, Book Three of the Forever Avalon series is coming soon.