Tag: Oscars

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.

Fantasy wins at the Oscars, and its just the beginning

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d44c6c0cc27b86409073154c09502413After last night’s win at the 90th annual Academy Awards, Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water is in the spotlight, as is the fantasy genre. It was great to see a writer/director/producer like del Toro win the Best Picture and Best Director Oscar. His vision of other worlds in such wonderfully vivid movies like Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Pacific Rim is legendary.

It was great to see the Academy honor a wonderful fantasy story like The Shape of Water and a director like del Toro. It gives a writer like me the confidence in my own fantasy stories. But, at the same time, it’s also disappointing that other fantasy movies weren’t even given a chance to be recognized.

I wrote previously about how the Academy snubs top-rated movies for “artsy” movies that people have barely seen. It’s a shame that audience approval isn’t part of the consideration. The Oscars are nothing more than a night for Hollywood elites to pat themselves on the back. Even still, they do try to get it right once in a while.

I just don’t understand why there is such a disdain for fantasy movies. If you think about it, only two fantasy movies have won the Best Picture Oscar in the past 50 years–Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and The Shape of Water. At the same time, some of the top selling movies of all time have been fantasy movies released in the 50 years.

It doesn’t make any sense to me. Fantasy is one of the best genres out there. It takes you back in time, to another world, or into a magical fantasy. The mind-blowing improvements in CGI has given filmmakers the opportunity to showcase stories that would never have been done before.

Here’s a great example… In 1966, director François Truffaut brought us the dystopian science fiction film Fahrenheit 451, based on the classic Ray Bradbury novel, starring Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, and Cyril Cusack. Watching this movie, you could see the wires holding the jet packs aloft. Yeah, it was pretty bad.

fahrenheit-451Now, in 2018, HBO is remaking it into a new movie starring Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon. It looks amazing, sure to outshine the original. You also got to love the subject matter (burning books, controlling information) in today’s day and age.

John Lennon said, “I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?” With that, how can you not want to write, read, and watch fantasy?

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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.

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.