Seth Rogen: ‘Maybe People Just Don’t Care’ About the Oscars, and ‘Why Should They?’

It’s very telling when the JHos and Gags of the world are the most desperate for that metal statue’s validation of their shiteous acting attempts.

I certainly don’t care about the Oscars, but how funny is it that Rogan said this while he was “promoting his Super Bowl commercial.”

^^^ Rogen

I really don't know who the audience of the Oscars is supposed to be anymore. Obviously mainstream movie-goers don't give a shit and get upset when they don't nominate every Marvel movie. On the other hand, the Oscars are also a joke to film aficionados, who prefer to follow the film festival circuit (Cannes, Berlin, Venice, TIFF, etc.). The middle-budget films that used to be catnip for the Oscars just aren't being made as frequently anymore.

I used to before they went 'woke' and changed the rules.

I miss independent film. I should’ve been an adult in the 90s.

Nothing exciting or interesting this year

The Oscars aren’t relevant. Most people watch streaming series and reality shows for entertainment, these days. Sure, films are still being viewed by the masses, but it is big budget CGI blockbusters instead of story/performance driven vehicles.

Why should anyone care about the super bowl? They to are rich millionaires playing a game to win an award and will have parties afterwards that everyday people will not be invited to. 😒

It's the same shit to me. These athletes play these games and go back home get drunk beat the hell out of their wives girlfriends or mistresses. They get drunk get DUI's and occasionally even kill or hurt others. And most of them contribute next to nothing back into society.

So who cares about them either? Athletes are assholes anyway.

I used to love to watch the Academy Awards and I enjoyed the entire awards season. Now, I don't bother to find out who's nominated anymore. I haven't seen a new movie in years, so that might be part of the reason, but it's also due to the media's constant griping and negativity over the past few years, and due to nearly every acceptance speech now sounding as if civil rights is non-existent in America. It's not interesting anymore, and it's definitely no fun anymore.

R10 America has a lot of problems that it refuses to fix for once and for all. That's why people feel as though they have to use their platforms to elevate the voices of their fans.

Don't blame Hollywood, blame a system that refuses to just do the right thing.

He’s just jealous of 2-time Oscar nominee Jonah Hill.

I'm not blaming hollywood, R11, I'm blaming the critics of Hollywood.

Things I don’t care about anymore (besides the Oscars):

The Olympics (one giant marketing opportunity) Global warming (talk to Maersk) Any news on any channel (I’m starting to look at UK sites) Football (ok I never did care about it)

You know if his ass was nominated, he’d be the first one to arrive.

There’s not much prestige to it. I think it lost me in the early 2000s; prior to that I believed all the hype that the awards were given to the “best” performance. But since around 2022 I just saw how politically motivated it is. Nowadays it isn’t even the politics it’s that there’s rarely enough good films to warrant the awards.

I’m amazed by the comparisons to 1939 and all those classics we still talk about to this day. Nothing in the best pictures list from this upcoming awards is in the same league.

I enjoy reading about Cannes film festival entries, I’m always more intrigued by the films they recognise.

I'd watch if a Ricky Gervais was roasting them to the 9th every moment

Smell her R@14 she doesn't care. But she will post she doesn't care.

I think most people just miss 20th century Hollywood. Thus new 21st century Hollywood isn't as fun or glamorous. There was just something magical about last century anyway.

Probably America's best century this far.

There's no mystery anymore. Every movie star under 40 posts something at least once a week to SHOW you where they are. Not trying to hide from where they are like last in the 90s. Most of those people wanna be seen out now . It's weird. It's Like they took that other side of the original argument. They want you to be outside Chasen's and Spago at 2am.

Fuck this Canadian fat fuck.

Movie Stars are supposed to be a bit mysterious. You never hear or see Myrel Streep unless she has a film coming out or she's attending award shows. That's how it's supposed to be. Film stars are actors they're not supposed to be celebrities or constantly seen the way someone like kim kardashian is.

Film stars are supposed to be people are somewhat remote then other entertainment figures are. That's not really the case anymore. At least not with everyone. So many people wanna be celebrities now.

I care about them! A lot of people I know care about them. Why are people so insistent on trying to wreck our fun? Why do people never do this with the Super Bowl or the Olympics or even the fucking Grammys? Why do people always have their knives out for the fucking Oscars? (Rhetorical question, the answer is homophobia.)

[quote] America has a lot of problems that it refuses to fix for once and for all. That's why people feel as though they have to use their platforms to elevate the voices of their fans.

Riiiight, because millionaires who live in gated mansions really know what’s going on in the real world. lol

R23 is too stupid to live.

I like my movie stars to run from cameras not to them to show you a new outfit.

Julia Roberts and Kim Kardashian had the absolute opposite take on cameras. KK liked EVERYTHING Julia Roberts ran away from for a decade.

My mom, who was born in 1958, remembers the Oscars being passé in the '70s after the sexual/social revolution of the '60s. Several nominees in this decade didn't /wouldn't attend. Some people like Brando and Vanessa Redgrave politicized the event. Many adults felt that movies had become too sleazy/vulgar. This turned off viewers/fans. But then the '80s came! The Oscars were suddenly cool and glitzy and glamorous again.

Also, she said that many older people around her often commented about the unattractiveness of '70s movie stars compared to when they were young and were not inclined to tune in to watch ugly people.

The Oscars became elitists.

When you look at the past Best Picture nominations at random - “Working Girl”, “Ghost”, “The Silence of the Lambs”, “The Fugitive”, “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, “Pulp Fiction”, “Babe”, “Jerry Maguire”, “Titanic”, etc, etc.

These were movies that were popular and relevant and had huge audiences.

I want to say the last 15-18 years, the Oscars has stayed away from box office movies and learned towards awarding and nominating independent movies that no one has ever seen or heard of.

I think it started with “Sideways”, which became like a sleeper hit through the award season and I feel like the Oscars has been trying to redo that over and over again. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

But if movies like “Ghost” or “Working Girl” or “The Fugitive” were made today, they’d never get nominated for Best Picture!

So for me, the Oscars became too out of touch with the general public for almost 2 decades.

No one wants to watch an award show with movies they’ve never seen or don’t even want to.

Movies are becoming irrelevant. Losing out to tv shows, Youtube, and video games.

I meant that since 2002 not 2022 that the Oscar’s became all political. While I have nothing against Halle berry and denzel and I thought they should have been nominated, that they both won just seemed so political at the time and not about celebrating the best performance.

[quote]Movies are becoming irrelevant

I hope TCM never goes away. Anyone know how successful that network is?

R30 The Oscars are hardly elitist. They're not Cannes. Get a grip.

R34 Like look at 2021’s Best Picture nominees…Nomadland, The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, Mank, Minari, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal, The Trial of the Chicago 7

Like what? Who watched those movies.

How can the Oscars be some big important award show and nominate movies no one watches.

It’s totally elitist. They’re too snobby to nominate popular movies.

R35 they are like the opposite of the Razzies, who often nominate the most popularly derided movies/performances instead of truly awful films.

The Razzies are more interesting at this point.

R15 Missed Rogen's point completely. Seth didn't say HE wasn't interested in the awards but that it makes sense to him that non-industry people who have no stakes in the whole affair are losing interest in the film business congratulating itself.

Popular movies are like Spiderman and and Fast and the Furious 17.

Are they supposed to nominate the top 10 box office hits of the year, though? Is that the point of them? Why not just give the statuettes to the number 1 hit at the box office.

There's always a racist asshole to come on these threads and cut black talent down with some lame excuse.

I see you R32.

R41 I am Not cutting them down at all. I like both of them. But it just seemed agenda driven that particular Oscars. Even halle’s speech was too much and then all the cutting to the black audience members… I personally feel more black performers should have been nominated and won prior to 2002 there have been more deserving performers that were overlooked than Halle berry…

R41 to be fair, many people thought the same thing in 2002. I remember The View even had a discussion about it the next day.

It was immediately post-9/11 and some felt that the Academy was feeling guilty or something and wanted to right some past wrongs. Also, it seemed suspect that both Halle and Denzel won, as it killed several birds with two stones: 1) the first black best actress winner, 2) the first time two black actors won in the same year, 3) the first time the Lead Acting categories were black winners, 3) Denzel only the second black Best Actor winner and the first in 40 years since Sidney Poitier... who was being bestowed an honorary Oscar that same night. It all seemed contrived (i.e., pat on the back).

Not to mention that Sissy Spacek was the frontrunner for most of awards season and Vegas bookies were even betting on her to win that weekend. Also, Russell Crowe practically swept the precursors (SAG, GG, BAFTA) but a physical altercation with BAFTA producers got him negative press two weeks before the Oscars.

I almost forgot, there was also an #OscarsSoWhite movement in 2001-2002 led by Jesse Jackson (although it wasn't called that) which probably helped influence Oscar voters. Five years earlier at the 1996 Oscars, Jackson had spearheaded a boycott of the event and discouraged black artists to attend, although Will Smith and Jada showed up and proudly walked the red carpet. I think they even presented. Hypocrites! Anyway, I remember Jackson being mocked for this boycott, even by Whoopi who hosted in '96. Five years later (and just six months after 9/11) no one was laughing this time. And not surprising, Halle and Denzel were the main winners.

I don’t understand the need for people to hone in on what happened in 2002 as some kind of Oscar crime when these wins happen all of the time. The Oscars love having a moment that year was one. Plus, Halle Berry was a glamour girl who uglied herself up - Oscar catnip. Denzel played against type - also Oscar catnip (and Russell fucked up his bag).

In any case, Hollywood screwed up the Academy Awards by deciding (for the most part) “quality” did not equal mass appeal and separating movies out as such. I’m not a superhero fan, but it is baffling that a well-reviewed film that did almost 2bil in box office was not included as a best picture nominee. Of course the AAs are not going to remain relevant.

They happen all the time but that year was it was particularly obvious and seemed particularly contrived.

The irrelevancy of the Oscars is one of the many symptoms of a far wider social and existential problem. American society is in decline. People aren't interested in social cohesion because it's far more self-satisfying/serving to blame, fingerpoint and scapegoat.

It is often said that Hollywood has run out of ideas. But that's incorrect. Hollywood as an entertainment medium has been destroyed by the hypocrisy and double standard being indoctrinated as the new socio-cultural imperative.

Everything is cheap and tacky. Nothing has true art or glamour anymore. Corporatization has completely ruined American culture and people are depressed because of it.

Good Morning.

I still miss Joan Rivers on the red carpet and Fashion Police. End of an era, that was.

R23 I dont give a shit about the Oscars, or Super Bowl or the Olympics or even the fucking Grammys. I've never given a shit about the Oscars or the Grammys, and I suspect thats true of a lot more people now both both of these awards

[R10} bullshit. Hollywood only use their "platforms" for themselves. All of their fake virtue signaling has gotten quite old.

Seth Rogan is right about this, but I can't stand his ass.

^ same. I could when he was a clean shaven Jew boy schlub. Now he looks he is going to rabbinical school.

Why spend two hours of your life watching an industry suck its own dick?

R35 I did. My friends and colleagues did. My family did. Not everyone is a fucking rube.

R30 The problem is Hollywood doesn't really make movies like them anymore.

“The irrelevancy of the Oscars is one of the many symptoms of a far wider social and existential problem.”

MARY!

Hollywood doesn’t care about quality anymore. Seth Rogen is an example of this.

Huge lifelong movie fan. As a kid TV Guide would have a full page listing the Best Actors and Actresses. Worked in theaters, loved the Oscars, maybe it's age, but the 10 Best Picture nominees was the final nail.

I almost think it’s better to just be nominated lots of times rather than winning. Winning doesn’t really mean anything and someone who wins once vs someone who has been nominated six times and not won (I think the many times nominated actor is probably better). And no, this is not Glenn close talking.

Way ahead of you

Many people don't care about Seth Rogen, and why should they?

I’m not so sure about the Denzel Halle political thing. Denzel was overdue for a lead Oscar. He should’ve won for The Hurricane in 1999 (Spacey won that year in a performance now that’s practically unwatchable). Halle won at SAG, beating Spacek. There might’ve been a few voters who voted for them because they were black, but they both had momentum going into that night. So I think it’s more coincidence than anything else when they gave Poitier his honorary one the same night. For all the naysayers about the Oscars on here, you know there will be at least three to four full threads come Oscar time. Everyone bitches, but many DLers will be watching.

We don't root for actors like we used to. There just aren't big stars that we idolize like we used to. We see them now as flawed.

And when was the last time a film really excited us and captured our collective consciousness? The days of Titanic, Silence of the Lambs or Gladiator are long gone. We don't get as excited by film because there are other options. And also films just aren't as good lately.

There's bigger shit going on in the world.

He’s correct

Society really really dislikes elitism, and the Oscars is emblematic of elitism

The sensibility of the type of people who are represented by the Oscars is out of touch and despised by mainstream culture today. It is no wonder that the chasm between the Oscars and mainstream America continues to grow.

Why is “mainstream” something to aspire to? Mainstream sucks. The Trumpian faux-populism on this thread is really depressing to see on DL.

Well, if you want something to have cultural Influence and significance, it needs to resonate with average people and have salience beyond a tiny few

Times and culture change. Entertainment and the entertainment have changed. Even DL has changed as generational replacement occurs. It’s not 1996 anymore

That is 20th century thinking, R70.

EVERYTHING is niche now except for Marvel and the NFL. Everything. Everyone else has to play to their base.

Sorry that comment was directed at R69, not R70.

[quote] It’s not 1996 anymore.

It’s the reverse now. In 1996, Exodus International was considered the anti-Christ where today, Gender Clinics are considered Christ-like.

[quote] Obviously mainstream movie-goers don't give a shit and get upset when they don't nominate every Marvel movie.

Yup.

Inapposite

The ironic thing is that far more people have seen the current Best Picture nominees than ever before because of streaming platforms like Netflix. In the past, most people had seen one or two nominees by the time the Oscars were aired.

Maybe less people watch the Oscars, but more people are actually seeing the films now. Isn't that a good thing?

Thanks to those posters who reminded me of the 2002 Oscars.

A few comments on that night.

1. Sidney Poitier's Honorary Oscar - great. I've always liked him.

2. Robert Redford Honorary Oscar - Bullshit. Story was that the other person who was considered for THIS Honorary Oscar was Richard Widmark. Jane Fonda argued in favor of Widmark and his was a long, successful career. But they gave it to the aged surfer boy with the silly wig instead. A missed great opportunity for the Oscars which, if both Sidney and Widmark had been the Honorary Oscar recipients, the broadcast could have presented clips from the 1950 film "No Way Out" which was Sidney's first movie role, playing a young doctor to Widmark's racist. If you've never heard it, you can probably find clips of Sidney talking about this film, how great RW was to him, and how Widmark kept apologizing for the racist dialogue his character is spouting., THAT would have been a great part of the show. But, NOOOO, we get Redford, whose career was still ongoing, excluding Widmark who was by then an old man. A missed great opportunity for that broadcast.

3. Obviously, most of you have forgotten or never noticed Denzel's crack when he came up to the stage for that Oscar. (Not to mention that fame whore, it's all about me, "I Love My Life" comment from Julia Roberts, after opening the envelope and before reading the name. As well as her succubus too long embrace of DW). DW's first comment was "Two birds in one night." Hardly the kind of remark one would expect from someone who had just won the BA Oscar. I took that to be a negative crack as to his take on this particular award. DW has had many terrific roles and been nominated before. He also had the BSA Oscar for "Glory" where he was really fine. I've wondered if he knew that this performance (Training Day) was not the best of the year, or best of his career. I'm no mind reader, but, watching that night, with that "Two birds in one night" remark, that's what I thought at the time. I've never seen "Training Day", so, for those who have, give your opinion of it.

R77 I thought two birds in one night referred to getting the award and the embrace from Julia.

[quote] I’m amazed by the comparisons to 1939 and all those classics we still talk about to this day. Nothing in the best pictures list from this upcoming awards is in the same league.

Most things are not the same as they were in 1939.

Things change. People's taste changes.

Hollywood put out some great films in the past and they also put out a lot of crap.

After decades and decades of watching Hollywood pat itself on the back with silly subjective awards show. Viewer have had enough.

r44 I guess Jada no longer can push the #oscarsowhite this year now Will Smith nominated as Best Actor.

R77 In hindsight, I think the Academy got the Best Actor award right in 2001. I recently rewatched Training Day and while Denzel’s performance wasn’t Malcolm X level, it was still pretty damn great. I think people lose sight of this because Training Day was essentially an adult popcorn flick and not Oscar bait.

He's right. The Oscars nominate shitty movies no one would go to the movies to see.

It isn't I who got big. It's the films that got small.

R82 = too stupid for Drive My Car

The Oscars still exist, don’t they? Of course, its importance and salience has declined as society has changed. We are just not a society that is interesting in deep, unsettling movies, nor do we like stuffy formality or institutions. They are becoming a niche interests, but at least they still exist for those who are into that type of thing.

[quote]I could when he was a clean shaven Jew boy schlub.

R53 Jew boy is an bigoted, offensive slur. Like Nigger.

R86 Watch your mouth!

R87 Watch your hypocritical bigotry!!

That year did seem heavy-handed.

Was that also the year they simulcast from the White House and Michelle Obama gave out an award?

It was supposed to be these momentous occasion - the first black First Lady bestowing the honor to whom many anticipated was going to be a black recipient, but it turn out that way.

Does anyone remember that?

Was that the same year as Denzel/Halle/Sidney?

R42 & R43 I didn't get to watch the Oscars in 2002. I was most likely in bed getting ready for school the next day. I was in the 7th grade then. So I didn't get to see the show. But I do remember Halle Berry winning her Oscar and her breaking down during her exceptence.

I saw it on Entertainment Tonight and E! News the next day.

* this momentous

* didn’t turn out

R89

R88 Bitch please!

R92 Deplorable Hypocritical Bigot, please!

It's interesting that I have so much power over Bitches.

R89, it's already been established that Halle/Denzel was 2002. Were the Obamas in the White House in 2002?

Hehe

Here are the top 10 highest grossing movies of 2021:

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home

2. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

3. Venom: Let There Be Carnage

4. Black Widow

5. F9: The Fast Saga

6. Eternals

7. No Time To Die

8. A Quiet Place: Part II

9. Ghostbusters: Afterlife

10. Free Guy

Since the biggest complaint seems to be that the films nominated are ones that most people haven't seen, tell me which of these 10 most popular films are deserving of Oscar nominations.

Let's compare that to 1981. The top 10 highest grossing movies were:

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark

2. On Golden Pond

3. Superman II

4. Arthur

5. Stripes

6. The Cannonball Run

7. Chariots of Fire

8. For Your Eyes Only

9. The Four Seasons

10. Time Bandits

Of those, Raiders, Golden Pond and Chariots of Fire were 3 of the 5 nominees for Best Picture. The other two were Atlantic City and Reds. If those five films were made today, only Raiders of the Lost Ark might land in the top 10 highest grossing movies. The other four would be in a league with The Power of the Dog, West Side Story and Licorice Pizza. So it seems to me that it's not that the Academy has started nominating smaller films instead of popular ones. It's more like audiences have stopped watching the kinds of films that would have been popular and nominated in the past.

The oscars are dying because there is no outreach to younger lgbtq viewers. Who wants to watch Nicole Kidman and all the other old timers be nominated for the millionth time.

Lady Gaga provided the most viral and notable moment:a 3 years ago yet she isn’t nominated?? So dumb!!

9000 professionals vote for their favorites of the year; it’s not a committee of TV executives sitting in a room figuring out how to lure the kids with the nominees. (Also, young people don’t watch linear TV anyway.)

I feel like a lot of this annual bitching—which has been the same my entire life, and I’m 40—if a streaming service bought the rights to the show from ABC.

*would subside

Right, R95.

My bad.

All the years seem to fold together now.

R89

R98, I had no idea that The Four Seasons was so successful. It's one of my all-time favorite movies. It should have swept the Oscars in 1981.

There are good films of you want to find them and great performances. There has been ten good films this year. Maybe not the ones nominated, but that's OK.

I've seen 8 of this year's 10 films. I thought all of them were OK (King Richard) to really good (TPotD, WSS, LP).

[quote]TPotD, WSS, LP

?

I think power of the dog is rightfully one of the best films this year, but I don’t think it has any staying power and is not a future classic. House of Gucci is one of the only films this year I could imagine watching again and again.

[...]

[...]

[...]

R96, Spider-Man

[...]

Hollywood destroyed themselves after releasing their covid singing video. They are all so detached. This country is dying, nobody wants to see rich people get awards for movies.

Every female star has a wine brand or vodka they're peddling since the pandemic. Every male star is peddling some podcast. It's all sales and no glamour. I hope nobody watches.

Movies are over. The Oscars are over.

Seth Rogen is from Vancouver, Canada

The Academy Awards are going from a host drought to a deluge. This year’s Oscars will be a three-act show with each one-hour act emceed by a different host, according to two sources with knowledge of the telecast planning.

After three years of hostless Oscars, the multi-host strategy helps address the biggest deterrents for potential emcees — the time commitment of preparing for the lengthy show and the often unflattering glare of the spotlight that the high-pressure gig can shine on entertainers. The plan also gives the Academy an opportunity to hire hosts who can attract different demographics to the flagging ABC telecast.

R97: “ Since the biggest complaint seems to be that the films nominated are ones that most people haven't seen, tell me which of these 10 most popular films are deserving of Oscar nominations.”

Answer: Spider-Man.

Sorry. ^ to r96.

r6 There has literally never been a more vibrant independent film pipeline than in the last 3 years. If anything its the lack of a studio system and development process which is resulting in writers and scripts that don't quite work or connect. For every indie you loved, there were probably many Hollywood professionals who read it and provided feedback (or tried to sell it to studios after development) and then the movie ended up getting made independently

Indie films are boring. Soap operas, really. And that’s what gets Oscars.

We already have the Daytime Emmys to not watch.

R107, really? I thought House of Gucci was boring as fuck? I haven't watched it but that's what everyone has been telling me...

House of Gucci is re-watchable, but not for the right reasons. It's a disaster.

R118, that's the one from that list that maybe merits consideration. But I haven't seen it, so I can't say if it's popular because it's one of the 10 best movies of the year or if it's popular just because it is a super hero movie. And four of the 2021 highest grossing movies did get Oscar noms. It's just that they were all for below the line categories.

But my point is that 40 years ago, movies like On Golden Pond and Chariots of Fire were both popular AND considered Oscar-worthy. Popular movies weren't all Raiders of the Lost Ark back then. There was room for and a desire for both serious movies and fun blockbusters. That's not the case today. Not a single one of today's top 10 can be considered a "serious movie" along the lines of On Golden Pond or Chariots of Fire. And if any of today's top 10 would have been nominated for Best Picture, there would be endless complaints about how unworthy it was. Even Spider-Man, no matter what the comic book fanboys might think.

Movies and celebrities aren't special anymore so nobody cares.

R40 They used to.

Look at the old nominations they didn’t typically nominate some obscure foreign indie dramas or movies that no one knows about.

[quote] But my point is that 40 years ago, movies like On Golden Pond and Chariots of Fire were both popular AND considered Oscar-worthy. Popular movies weren't all Raiders of the Lost Ark back then.

Raiders is a better movie than either Pond or Chariots.

That may be, R127. I know it's my favorite of the three.

I did a little analysis of 40 years of Top 10s vs Oscar Best Picture noms.

1980-89: 30% of the BP noms were also Top 10s

1990-99: 38% were Top 10s

2000-09: 11% were Top 10s

2010-19: 7% were Top 10s

Starting in 2004, there were eleven years where none of the Best Picture noms were Top 10s. But that's also about the time that super heroes, animated kids features, and other IP sequels (Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Fast and Furious) started dominating the box office.

So it's a chicken and egg question: Did the Academy fall out of touch with popular tastes? Or did popular tastes abandon original/serious movies?

HYPOCRITE! He dropped king time friend James Franco because some Asian fugly they worked with said she was “uncomfortable “ with the allegations against Franco. Now it’s been proven he didn’t assault or harass anyone , he is an admittedly addicted to sex , the women wanted relationships , he wanted to fuck and move on, they got butt hurt and called him “sexual abuser” etc… Rogan shows his true colors by immediately ending a long time friendship for fear of being called a “me too” type. BUT he’s a fucking dough boy fuck hypocrite by producing a show about Pam Anderson’s stolen sex tape. She didn’t consent to the show nor does she feel comfortable, yet he’s ok making money off HER story essentially re-victimizing her. Fuck Seth Rogan, his annoying stoner laugh and weird teeth.

It’s not the Oscars fault for not rewarding movies that are both popular and artistic, it’s Hollywood’s fault for not making them anymore.

Gawd, what a bunch of whining babies.

People, the Oscars only started to hit ratings gold in the mid to late ‘80s and throughout the ‘90s. That was due to the integration of high fashion and truly entertaining hosts. You babies act like it was a ratings hit for 78 years or something - for a long time, they weren’t even televised! And they’ve always been criticised for being long and have always been self-critical about it.

You think people cared in the ‘70s when, erm, Art Carney won for Best Actor or when Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers was a Best Picture nominee? Or Lenny or Barry Lyndon? You think people were really interested that Ann-Margaret and Carol Kane were competing against each other for Best Actress? I mean I could go on and on and on.

The media started turning on the Oscars a few years back - I should say the right-leaning American media - and decided they had to monitor every ratings point and flagellate the Oscars for EVERY perceived failing and declare it dead every five minutes. Probably when the Academy finally decided to be more inclusive - because you'll note that ANY effort to be inclusive in this country is met with huge resistance, fear and criticism. The Oscars is probably paying the price for that, without a doubt.

They had a bad year last year - so did a LOT of people. But they’ll bounce back. The Oscars are for people who love movies; bemoaning the fact that they are not and never will be The Marvel Academy Awards is just stupid - the cultural hegemony of mind-numbing Marvel films doesn’t mean they’re worthy of acknowledgement, especially since most of those films are shit anyway. Popular doesn’t equal good or awards-worthy. I finally saw that Spider-Man shit and I couldn’t believe how AWFUL it was. Incoherent and awful.

Do you know how long people have been saying “I haven’t seen or heard of any of the nominated films”? FOREVER. EVERY YEAR. Funnily enough every year people who don’t watch movies say they haven’t seen any of the movies. It’s the weirdest thing how that works out.

As we all know, with changing viewing habits and streamers, there has also been a splintering and decline in ratings for EVERYTHING. One thing is for sure, there will likely never be 55+ million people tuning into the Oscars again. Ever. Get used to it. They’ll probably enjoy a new heyday though in a few years, once we’re post-pandemic and movie-going returns to normal. And it will. People will return to cinemas. You know why? Because it’s enjoyable and fun. Changes are necessary but cinema will survive. The Oscars will continue because they’re important within the industry, even if their cultural prominence ebbs and flows.

But please, STFU with your constant know-nothing whining and complaints - that has more to do with what the U.S. has become: just constant whining and grievance. It doesn’t even matter the topic that’s ALL Americans do now, is moan about everything. STFU already. Love film, enjoy the Oscars. Otherwise it’s not for you. I’m sure we’ll, well, some of us will survive.

FYI: In case you haven’t noticed, the United States is in decline and that decline is rapidly accelerating. Not enough people seem concerned or are even aware of that. And it’s only going to get worse. And it’s not the Academy’s fault.

B.D. loved both of her oscars. Ryan Murphy would have us believe she kept one as a bathroom doorstop. The other was worn to a nub.

The Academy Awards should be all about the magic of movies. The entertainment and larger than life glamour. It's not. The ceremony is long and boring. Glamour has been replaced by tackiness. Not what it used to be.

Mate, have you seen any clips from past ceremonies? They didn’t even have seat fillers until like 1984. Winners like Sally Field and Sissy Spacek wore clothes they’d bought off the rack. Meryl Streep wore her wedding dress one year.

Things change. Get over it.

You must be young.

The Oscars made sense before the Internet. Now with streaming they don’t make sense anymore. The line between movies, television and streaming is all blurry. Plus no one cares if Nomadland or Parasite wins. These are not entertaining films.

Nomadland was pretty good.

R84, which one of us has an advanced degree and which one of us barely passed high school?

r132 Lots of older Hollywood types keep their awards and certificates in the downstairs bathroom. It both shows them off to guests while also jokingly saying "i dont take these too seriously". But id certainly believe Bette Davis didn't treat hers like that

Oscars were big in the 70's, full page newspaper ads, full pages in TV Guide and they live in LA and didn't come on in the east until 10PM

Gee, I wish ALL these people who don’t care about the Oscars would stop posting on the Oscar threads….