Oscars 2014: Why Are the Academy Awards Still Relevant?

Right now, Hollywood is abuzz. No, the better term to describe the atmosphere in showbiz right now is one of frantic anticipation and preparation: the Academy Awards, renamed to simply The Oscars last year, will be taking place a few hours from now, at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.

As actors, producers, directors, writers and all kinds of film professionals are getting ready either to attend the gala or to catch it on TV (hey, not everyone is lucky enough to score an invite), putting the finishing touches to their acceptance speeches or, if they’re not nominated, rooting for their favorites, one question arises: why do we still care?

Year after year, it becomes more painfully obvious that there’s a clear disconnect between the Oscar winners, the winners voted by the organizers of the gala, the AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), and fan favorites. To put it roughly, though that’s not necessarily a “rule,” the winners never have huge commercial success.

Each year, movie buffs tune in on the Oscarcast and all the preceding festivities (the nominations ceremony, smaller galas related directly or not to the Oscars, basically the entire awards season), and each year, without an exception, they leave feeling dissatisfied, cheated, lied to. Of course, not everyone can be a winner, but it seems that the number of these movie buffs is increasing with each edition – or they’re just getting louder.

This, in turn, started talk of how the Oscars weren’t relevant anymore, having lost the one thing that justified the gala’s existence since 1929: the fact that they reflected reality, that they were “fair.” Just think of how many times you’ve heard someone say, “They gave the Best Picture Oscar to which film?! I don’t even know what that is!”

This happens because the Academy Awards were never meant to be fair or, for that matter, mainstream. But that’s not to say they’re not relevant.

The tradition

The first Oscar ceremony was held in 1929, at a time when the movie industry was nothing compared to what we have today. However, the voting system was similar to the current one: the members of the AMPAS, whose identity is never disclosed publicly, are divided into various branches, depending on their experience in one area or another in the film industry (actors, directors, producers, etc.).

Nominees are enlisted and the members choose the final list of nominations based on a well-established series of criteria. The ballots are mailed to the voters some time before the gala, and they’re mailed back in time to pick the winners.

Studies have shown that, today, of the roughly 6,000 AMPAS members, an overwhelming percentage is comprised of white older men. The Los Angeles Times revealed these figures in 2012, after an undercover investigation into the AMPAS voting membership: 94% were Caucasian, 77% were male, 54% were over 60 years old, 33% were former nominees (14%) and winners (19%).

This explains why critically and commercially successful films (like Chris Nolan’s “Inception” or Dark Knight trilogy, to name just a few) never got a nod in the major categories. I won’t consider here Heath Ledger’s posthumous Oscar win because, though he absolutely deserved it, I think we can agree that was a rather political choice than anything else.

This also shows that, before anything, the Academy Awards are an exclusive event: the gala is a Hollywood tradition that that would be best described as a self-complacent, self-indulgent night when the biggest names in the industry gather to heap praise on one another.

The Oscars were never meant to mean anything for the likes of you or me, they were always just that, because they represent the industry people’s recognition of their peers.

The prestige

So, winning an Oscar means more than just going home a shiny statuette that you can place on your shelf and remember to dust every once in a while. Even for those for whom an Oscar never translates into box office success, i.e. mainstream popularity, winning an Academy Award represents a crowning achievement.

Showbiz is a dog-eat-dog world but the Academy Awards represent that one moment when everyone in film comes together to honor the cream of the crop. Money is what makes the world spin and definitely what pushes many into seeking a job in the industry, but an Oscar is the ultimate reward one can dream of and aspire to.

More than a statuette and the many perks (some official, some not) that come with it and the boost in popularity, albeit sometimes temporary, an Oscar is a symbol of the recognition of the peers for an outstanding job. It means you as a winner didn’t just do your best: you did so well you actually got your peers’ respect and admiration for life.

The media