Short answer, no.
I could have left it at that really, but then I read @silkcharm’s blog post and tweets, and felt I needed to justify it that little more.
Television audience numbers are decreasing
So what? Does this mean The Oscars are becoming irrelevant? No. Let’s face it, it’s a 3 hr+ broadcast, and we’re an impatient bunch these days. Try looking on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, the smorgasbord of entertainment sites and bloggers out there blogging, tweeting and uploading videos/streaming it though. How about another graph of how the online audience is faring in regards to The Oscars?
“One of the frequent criticisms of the Academy Awards is that its aging membership does not reflect popular demographic trends.”
This whole notion that The Oscars are criticised for not reflecting box office figures and what the vox populi think is complete rubbish. As I commented on her post…
I am more than happy to let AMPAS members determine who deserves these awards. There are enough awards shows out there decided by the population, and I’m sure they’ll all start having a “Vote by Twitter” category soon enough. Who knows, maybe even The Oscars will cave in and create another category, but please leave the majority of the show alone.
@silkcharm said:
well with the numbers of audience declining, can they afford to leave it alone?
I said…
Yes? I see your point re: the ad revenue, but I would hate for these awards to be dictated by something like that. Maybe that’s a naive view of the world, or my love of movies [not just the ones making the $$] talking.
And as @ahmedbaghdadi tweeted, “I think Mo’nique said it best: “Sometimes you have to forego doing what’s popular to do what’s right.”
“I would prefer to watch Sundance awards, not Oscars as the big night of nights”
I love the festival circuit and I wish I followed it more, but festival awards only cover the movies shown at the festival [as far as I know]. The Oscars are almost trying to act like an aggregator of the mainstream and films shown at these festivals. Festivals discover the little gems, act as the big social influencers to some extent in getting independent movies distribution, raising awareness. The Oscars then tries to select the best of what has been shown throughout the year, and no, it was silly of me to say they’re like an aggregator. They do the aggregation, but they also do the curation and the analysis via AMPAS members, and I thank them for that. This is what RELEVANCY is all about, and this is a case where I do not want what my social network may like the most to be what wins.
UPDATE:
The blogosphere was literally split down the middle in terms of online buzz around the 82nd Academy Awards Best Picture nominees. Both Avatar and The Hurt Locker each maxed out with three quarters of a percent (.75%) of blog post buzz across the web.
The data in question comes from The Nielsen Company, who charted all blog posts since the start of February and found that The Hurt Locker’s Best Picture and Director win mirrored the movie’s rise in terms of blog mentions over time. Social media as a whole, however, told a much different story earlier in the week, as Avatar had a massive lead in terms of mentions over the film that eventually beat it out.
via Mashable
Interesting that the blogosphere is acting like the “expert” community and its opinion is detached from social media as a whole.
c0up 
The voting members of the AMPAS are making the awards irrelevant by awarding based on criteria that are far detached from common sense and reality and instead gratifying their own wants and needs. This practice has persisted and is the root cause of the decrease in television ratings. Furthermore, the signs of decay have reached new heights in this year’s awards; the plain, ordinary Hurt Locker was awarded Best Picture over Avatar, a film which is indisputably and by far the best the world has yet seen in terms of visuals. Note that AMPAS is the academy of "motion pictures". In context of its media of film (versus other media such as books), Avatar and its far, far superior visuals deserved recognition this year as the best motion picture, but AMPAS instead opted for plain, ordinary artistry (and little of it), which ultimately was a move on their part to award the film that focused on the actor rather than the production itself.The AMPAS has been walking down the path toward irrelevance, and took a giant leap toward it this year. Time to wake up and smell the coffee.
I’d like to think that Best Picture would take into consideration the strength of the story, acting, direction, etc. Not just superior visuals, which I doubt anyone would argue against when it comes to ‘Avatar’.It won for Art Direction, Cinematography and Visual Effects, and to me, that’s fair, and I thought as much yesterday http://c0up.posterous.com/oscars-2010-my-predictions/shrug
The Oscars are and always have been irrelevant – it’s not like good movies would stop being made if the Academy Awards ceased to exist. And there are plenty of amazing movies that are never mentioned in the context of these awards. And other than promoting the winners, it doesn’t have any real effect on the industry other than to make the Academy’s voters feel overly important. What’s sad is the millions of people who think that an Oscar somehow validates a good movie or performance, when really the two have little to do with each other.
You could probably say the same thing about a lot of awards; the primary reason something so good is made is hardly to go up on stage and hold a statuette. That’s besides the point though.They’re a critical accolade, awarded by peers in the industry, and offer recognition to the winners and those nominated, and there’s no doubt that said movies will get a boost. It also helps pick some people from relative obscurity and give them a chance to continue making, acting, etc, in movies. And yes, I *do* feel that they validate a good movie or performance. Yes, they won’t be able to give due credit to every amazing movie out there, but they, along with the festival circuit, sure as hell help. In the end, it’s another night that helps a great deal in feeding conversations about movies, so all power to ’em.