EDITORIAL
The ceremony has lost its sheen with decline in viewership and cultural influence
Hollywood has come a long way since May 16, 1929, when the first ceremony to present Academy Awards, better known as Oscars, was held in Los Angeles. Its recent edition – the 98th Academy Awards – took place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, last Sunday.
The ceremony, as anticipated, witnessed ‘One Battle After Another’, a political thriller by Paul Thomas Anderson walking away with six statuettes out of the total of 13 nominations, including three trophies for Anderson in the Best Film, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay categories. In the past, Anderson has been nominated around dozen times in various categories but failed to win any award. In fact, he should have won the award for his previous films like ‘There Will Be Blood’ (2007) and ‘Phantom Thread’ (2017). But then the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) presenting these awards, is famous for its ‘snub’ tradition due to which directors like Cecil B DeMille, George Cukor, Carol Reed, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Alfonso Cuarón received this honour for their less groundbreaking films, rather than their early masterpieces.
One of the interesting sidelights of the ceremony was the absence of the talented actor Sean Penn, who won his third Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Penn, who had earlier won the award for ‘Mystic River’ (2004) and ‘Milk’ (2009), has now become the fourth male actor to win three acting Oscars, joining Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson and Walter Brennan. Penn skipped the ceremony as he was in Ukraine on the same day, where he met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a show of support for the war-torn country.
That was not the only political touch to the ceremony. Actor Javier Bardem, who appeared as a presenter for the grand show, made a political statement, declaring “No to war, and free Palestine” before announcing the winner. Furthermore, television host Jimmy Kimmel, one of the most vocal critics of the US President, did not waste his opportunity. He said, “Oh man, is he going to be mad his wife isn’t nominated?” Although Kimmel didn’t mention names, it was evident he was referring to the recent documentary about Melania Trump, the First Lady of the United States.
The movie ‘Sinners’ was the top rival of ‘One Battle After Another’! ‘Sinners’, set in 1932, starred Michael B Jordan in dual roles as criminal identical twin brothers who return to their Mississippi hometown to confront a supernatural evil. It received 16 nominations out of 17 possible categories – a record – but won four, including Best Actor for Jordan. The other three categories it won the statuettes are Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw, making her the first woman in history to win in this category.
The Indian connection at the Oscars was actress-producer Priyanka Chopra as one of the presenters. The Indian-American filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir had earned two nominations in Best Documentary Feature Film and Best Documentary Short Film categories, but didn’t win any awards. Interestingly, ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ won its lone Oscar for Best Visual Effects, thus creating history with all three films under ‘Avatar’ franchise being awarded in this category.
The Oscar ceremony, considered Hollywood’s biggest night, has unfortunately lost its sheen with significant decline in viewership and cultural influence, in recent years. This could be due to the fact that except films, all other things from politics to racism are discussed on this platform. Jokes aside, the AMPAS now absolutely needs to take movies seriously!
