Missing No Action

Content Insider – Awards

By Andy Marken – andy@markencom.com

“Life is but a walking shadow… a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot… full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” – Macbeth, “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” A24, 2021

When Louis B. Mayer, founder of then powerful MGM, held his party on May 16, 1929 to give a few of his conscript filmmakers some rewards for staying in line, his rationale was delightfully simple and … it worked.

It was a small affair – 270 attendees dropping five bucks (equivalent to $75 today) for a 15-minute presentation ceremony with a deviously simple goal, “I found that the best way to handle [filmmakers] was to hang medals all over them … If I got them cups and awards, they’d kill them to produce what I wanted.”

Keeping Order – Old Hollywood knew the best way to solve problems was to hold a party, give away stuff.  At the first Academy Awards dinner Douglas Fairbanks was highlighted giving Janet Gaynor her best actress award.  

AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) hosted the affair, giving Academy Awards to the pre-announced winners including Janey Gaynor, best actress; Emil Jannings, best actor; and Frank Borzage, best directing.   

Even though they didn’t like him very much (the word is he was a pain in the B***), Charlie Chaplin, received a special honorary award for his all-around contributions to the film industry.

That was it.

Folks ate their rubber chicken, politely clapped, went home in their limos and (we suppose) deviously planned how they were going to scoop up one of the cute statues by sucking up to the AMPAS founders who held all the power to name the winners.

Of course, someone figured out that AMPAS could make money on the event, so they broadcast it on radio the next year and then 25 years later, they went for more money and with Bob Hope as host, they televised the gala.

Televised – For the 15^th annual event, Bob Hope MCed the Academy’s first TV award event.  Suddenly the movie industry liked television.  

Suddenly, the Academy Awards became hot … profitable … political … increasingly boring.

In fact, award events around the globe – BAFTA, Cannes, SXSW, TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival), Sundance, Berlin (Berlinale) and hundreds more – have become a serious business segment where organizations and individuals spend serious marketing dollars in hopes of influencing the award results.  

Profit Makers – Perhaps one of the sure things in the M&E industry is that film festivals and award events will make a lot of money for the sponsors. That’s probably why there are so many of them around the world.  

Why the contest rush?

Winning one – or more – of the prized statues or medals can mean millions more for the A-Listers on the backends of their project showings and even more front-end dollars on tomorrow’s projects.

Nothing wrong with that … it’s called free enterprise and if you can leverage your past and present work to make more money in the future, great.

In today’s divided/equal world, the film industry has become the staging ground for diversity and inclusion and has become tougher.

Perhaps even a little vicious. and

Everyone – us included – want to see accepted diversity and equity for folks; and even though it is difficult to achieve, it’s a goal we need to work toward.

LGBTQIA2S+, AAPI, BILM and other organizations have taken a stand for equal representation in films/series regardless of gender, race, religion, culture, sex sexual orientation. And after all these years, they deserve to be seen and heard

But … it’s difficult

Last year, Statista estimated that 403 movies and 559 original scripted TV shows had been released in North America.

Even if we multiply that number by 10 for global releases, we’re not certain if everyone would feel he or she was equitably – and properly – represented.

Hattie McDaniel became the first African American female to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting actress in Gone with the Wind (1939).

Serving Friends – Clark Gable and Hattie McDaniel were friends on and off the screen and they weren’t above joking around like when Gable replaced the tea he served her with “a little” whiskey.  When Ms. McDaniel wasn’t invited to attend the Atlanta opening of Gone with the Wind, she had to convince him he had to attend for the good of the film.  

Clark Gable considered boycotting the premiere in Atlanta when he heard Ms. McDaniel wasn’t allowed to attend.  She convinced him go attend and no, he didn’t repeat the film’s closing line, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn!”

David O. Selznick, producer, also had to pull strings so she could give her acceptance speech at the 12^th Academy Awards.

Both stood up for their professional friend.

Despite all the pomp, pageantry and financial rewards that certainly followed the awards, Gable may have been one of the first but certainly wasn’t the last Hollywood professional who thought taking a stand for equality and inclusion was important–especially since many feel the awards have deteriorated into little more than popularity contests.  

Offer Refused – As a statement against the inequalities of the movie industry, Marlon Brando refused to receive his Oscar for his role as Don Corleone in The Godfather. Instead, Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather took the stage and discussed diversity and equality.  

Godfather’s Don Corleone said it was a political statement protesting Hollywood’s treatment of First Americans for their inaccurate, derogatory, racist portrayals in films. 

Stayed Home – Sir John Gielgud elected to stay home when he was to win the Oscar for his part in Arthur, noting such “contests” were mere self-congratulatory baloney.  

Sir John Gielgud who won a wall of awards over his 80 years on the stage and screen, turned down the Oscar for best supporting actor as the butler in Arthur because he felt award shows were “full of mutual congratulations baloney.”  

While Woody Allen has been nominated for an Academy Award 24 times, he won an Oscar four times but didn’t bother accepting the award for Annie Hill noting, “the whole concept of awards is silly. I cannot abide the judgment of other people, because if you accept it when they say you deserve an award, then you have to accept it when they say you don’t.”

Don’t think the awards events around the globe aren’t an increasing cliché recognition affair?

French Win – The Cannes Film Festival thought that a film of a woman making love to a car was so creative and special that they gave Julia Ducournau their prized Palme d’Or for Titane.  She was the second woman to every receive the festival’s top prize.  

Take this year’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner … Titane.

It gets right to it with a woman making out in a car.

Ooppss we’re wrong, it’s about a woman making out with a car.

It was wildly acclaimed by fellow film production judges but creative for something other than shock value for an average moviegoer.

Now we’re no prude, but we’re sorta glad we missed seeing it in a theater and can’t wait to miss it when it shows up on one of our streaming services.

In our increasingly polarized world and industry, we’re certain there are and will be again others who reject the popularity contests. 

Of course, this year’s Academy Awards party is already being called a shambles and it hasn’t even been held yet.

Rejected Guest – Co-hostess Amy Schumer at this year’s Academy Awards suggested a special speaker for this year’s event but the Academy shot down the idea of having Ukranie’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak remotely this year.  Probably true … we don’t know.  

Co-host Amy Schumer came up with this silly idea of inviting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to appear (Zoom or pre-recorded, of course) but the Academy blew off the suggestion because … well, because.

It was probably because he isn’t “in the trade”?  

Sorry, he is a former actor/comedian and probably still has his Guild card somewhere in the rubble.

How about he’s a politician?

Well yes, and he’s also one of the most widely known, inspirational and respected international figures in the world today.  

In fact, the Academy has had a history of having politicians front and center – Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, Ronald Reagan in 1981, Laura Bush in 2002, Michelle Obama in 2013.  

But as Benjamin Svetkey said in his Wrap article on the rejection, “There’s one thing you can always count on from the folks who put on the Oscars — they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

A-Listers on Display – The Oscars and all M&E award events always feature stars with outfits that ensure the actors will stand out and be shown/talked about on the news.  These include (l-r) Bella Hadid, Billy Porter, Halle Berry, and Colman Domingo.  

You might rationalize by saying it would be in bad taste and everyone knows it’s all about A-Listers and being seen.

Now that might be a problem.

The biggest night for Hollywood, the Academy Awards, have usually been shown on TV with a lot of pre-show hype.  

The problem is a lot like movie theater ticket sales … viewership has dropped since 2015 dipping to a record low of 9M+ last year.

Trending – It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that this year’s Academy Awards TV viewing will be low since award events have steadily lost audience share for the past 20 years.  

And the Oscars aren’t unique.  

The Emmys, Grammys and all of the big award ceremonies don’t appeal to today’s appointment TV or anytime, anyplace, any screen viewer. Especially the key audience advertisers want to reach–adults 18-49.

Any pay TV or streaming executive that saw the numbers drop like that on one of their shows would drop it in a heartbeat.  

In an attempt to save their day/time slot on TV, the Academy is fighting (internally) to award and pre-record Oscars for film editing, doc shorts, makeup/hairstyling, original score, production design, animated short, live-action short, sound and edit, drop it into a tighter live broadcast.

Reps for the Academy have pledged that every nominee will be mentioned, every winner will get a moment on the Dolby Theater stage and the home audience will hardly know the difference between the categories handed out during the live telecast and the ones edited into that telecast. 

Yeah, that has ticked off darn near everyone because folks know their expertise and achievements have been or could be diminished in the next go-around.  

ACE (American Cinema Editors) have said there are other creative, entertaining ways to shorten the long, painful, dull show because they believe the true fans want to see an evening celebrating “the highest honor in our industry.”

That might be true.  

But maybe – just maybe – those true fans are getting to the age where 8 p.m. is their normal bedtime.

Or perhaps it’s like the industry’s highest grossing – and one of our favorites – actors, Samuel L. Jackson, said a few months back, “Oscars don’t move the comma on your check — it’s about getting assess in seats and I’ve done a good job of doing that.”

And that’s true, even if you’re watching him in his new, great (our opinion) Apple TV+ series, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey.

Maybe it’s time for the Academy to do exactly what folks have told HFPA (Hollywood Foreign Press Association) to do when the Association and their Golden Globe awards fell into disgrace…”start over from scratch.”

The Academy isn’t corrupt like the HFPA was, but it’s just got a lot of excess baggage based on what worked before.

Now that MGM has been snapped up by Amazon, let’s cut out the middlemen and have the biggest customers pick the winners and have a bigger – and more expensive – dinner party.

As Macbeth warned in The Wrath of Macbeth, “Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell that summons thee to Heaven or to Hell.”

After all, award presentations are really for the participants  … not the audience.

Andy Marken – andy@markencom.com – is an author of more than 700 articles on management, marketing, communications, industry trends in media & entertainment, consumer electronics, software and applications. Internationally recognized marketing/communications consultant with a broad range of technical and industry expertise especially in storage, storage management and film/video production fields. Extended range of relationships with business, industry trade press, online media and industry analysts/consultants.