Mar 29, 2022 23:00:00

Will the day come when the Academy Awards, which suffer from poor ratings and attention, will come back?

At the 94th Academy Awards held on the morning of March 28, 2022, Japan time,

director Ryusuke Hamaguchi's 'Drive My Car' won the International Feature Film Award and became a hot topic in Japan. On the other hand, it seems that the attention to the Academy Awards is gradually decreasing in recent years, and LA Mag , an art and lifestyle related media, explains the problems of the Academy Awards.

Are the Oscars Over?
https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/are-the-oscars-over-2/

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Academy), which manages the Academy Awards , has been working on various reforms in recent years. At the time, the award results were awarded in eight categories: 'Editing Award', 'Sound Award', 'Original Composition Award', 'Art Award', 'Makeup & Hair Styling Award', 'Live Short Film Award', 'Short Documentary Award', and 'Short Animation Award'. It was announced in advance, and in the broadcast, a recorded and edited version of the state at the time of the announcement was broadcast .

In addition, the initiative ' Aperture 2025 ' plans to add 'race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability diversity in casts and staff' to the criteria for selecting films to be nominated for film awards after 2024. increase. The filmmakers collect this information from the cast and staff in advance, and if the Academy staff investigates and determines that 'there are few people with a particular race, gender, sexual orientation, or disability,' then that. The work will lose its nomination qualification.

There are pros and cons within Hollywood about the system of investigating the race and sexual orientation of casts and staff. Opponents say that this attempt is invasive and anti-creative for filmmaking, unfair to those who want to hide their sexual orientation and obstacles, and can lead to privacy issues. I'm criticizing. Also, when making a movie, producers and directors need to consider 'Can this cast and staff meet the requirements of race and sexual orientation?', And in the first place, the cast and staff ask 'Your race and gender.'・ Some people hesitate to ask, 'Tell me about your sexual orientation and disability.' An industry insider ridiculed LAMag, 'Then, what about animals? What if the main character is a horse?'

When Aperture 2025 is actually introduced, 'How many of our ancestors would be recognized as Native American actors?' 'Is it OK to count Jews as' inhibited people '? There can be controversies such as 'Who will take on the detrimental role of listening to sexual orientation and disability?' One filmmaker said, '(Academy Awards) make filmmaking more difficult than easy. It's hard to make a film. Nobody wants to do that tedious thing.' One Academy member commented, 'Filmmaking based on

affirmative action is a ridiculous story, and I don't think it can be done.'

There is also the issue of the collection and storage of cast and staff privacy information, such as sexual orientation and disability, by a third-party academy. 'Data is a toxic asset. Programs that involve data collection put the collector at risk of data leakage,' said Rory Mir of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. LAMag points out that the academy needs to share in detail who can access the information and how it will be used, as some information is probably protected by law.

The academy's push for these controversial reforms is to respond to criticisms such as 'there are too many white people involved in and award winners of the Academy Awards' and to stop the decline in attention to the Academy Awards. According to

Forbes , the 94th Academy Awards had about 15.4 million TV viewers, well above the record low of about 10.4 million in the 93rd, but still the second lowest in Academy Awards history. It was the number of people. The highest number of viewers ever recorded was about 55 million people in the 70th time when ' Titanic ' won 11 categories, and although it maintained the 40 million level even in the 2000s, in 2010 In the latter half of the year, it dropped to the 20 million level. LA Mag says the academy is feeling a sense of crisis and is trying to make various reforms to regain attention.

LAMag explains why people are leaving the Academy Awards: 'In the modern age of stars from Tik Tok and YouTube, the number of movie actors' pies is declining as a cultural icon.' 'Cultural elected by academy voting members. There is a gap between a movie that is popular and a movie that is highly entertaining for general movie fans. ' On top of that, 'No matter how well-meaning Aperture 2025 is, this initiative will not solve the problem. On the contrary, at this pace, no one will see the Academy Awards by 2025, so it is the fairest and most diverse. Filmmakers with a set may not even care if their film qualifies. '

Once the Academy Awards were undoubtedly an internationally influential cultural event, hosting the Academy Awards not only had a positive impact on the local economy, but also earned thousands of box office revenues for nominated films in the United States alone. It was also responsible for the significant increase in units of 10,000 dollars (about several billion yen). However, the fact that the Academy Awards have been nominated in recent years does not mean that the box office revenue will increase significantly, and the ' Moonlight ,' ' Shape of Water, ' ' Green Book ,' and ' Parasite Semi-Underground ' It is said that the box office revenue in the United States such as ' Family ' was only increased by several million dollars (hundreds of millions of yen) even after receiving the Academy Award.

Of course, in recent years it's not possible to make a simple comparison because of the revenue from movie distribution services, but one Academy member said, '(The big increase from the awards) is limited to the movies that people really want to watch. Recent Academy Awards don't seem to have nominated many of these films. ' LAMag said, 'This is the real existential crisis facing the Academy Awards. The Academy Awards have lost their reason for existence. If winning a trophy no longer makes much sense in box office revenue, it's the biggest mess in the world. What is the purpose of this ceremony other than soothing the ego that was slaughtered? '

When LA Mag announced the Academy Award nominations in 2025, people asked, 'How did this work meet the standards of diversity?' 'Who was the actor who was identified as'gay'in that nomination?' He said he might play 'Guess Which Star is Gay', such as '?', And pointed out that there may not even be an audience playing such a grotesque game. A well-known producer sighed and replied, 'I don't think so. I think the Academy Awards are dead.' am.