One of my favorite times of the year is finally here! Awards season is
usually the January and February of a new year, and it is a time to catch up on
all the films you missed in the last year,
be amazed by the amount of quality films (or lack thereof ) nominated,
and make predictions of your own about who or which movie should win the coveted
prize of a Golden Globe, or an Academy Award. Award shows are my personal
guilty pleasure, but even I can admit that I am just a little bit disappointed
by the nominees this years in the Oscars. In addition to the fact that not a
single person of color is nominated for an acting award, the Academy has
managed to nominate one of its "least-commercial" best picture slates
ever. With six indie films and two studio features that have just opened to
wide release nominated for best picture, the highest-grossing movie so far is
"The Grand Budapest Hotel" at $59 million domestically, a rather
modest number.
My main area of study is usually young adult films, but this week, I'm
going to focus on young adults as an audience in relation to award shows and
what draws them to watch these ceremonies. Last year was a record-breaking
Oscars, with Ellen DeGeneres hosting, and brought in the largest amount of
young viewers in recent history. In addition to Ellen, the movies nominated
that year were blockbusters like "Gravity" and "The Wolf of Wall
Street", which all grossed over $100 million. They could have also
included movies like "Gone Girl" (which grossed $167 million),
"Into the Woods"(which received a Golden Globe nomination), and
especially "The Lego Movie"(which was snubbed for both Best Picture
AND Best Animated Film). They're film choices really did alienate the younger
audience from watching this year.
"The Oscars, like the moviemaking
business, is facing an identity crisis. At least when “The Dark Knight” got
snubbed, fans were outraged. If most people haven’t heard of the nominees, they
aren’t going to watch, and the business will lose more young viewers to
indifference, because TV and video games are engaging them in a way that the
movies aren’t." All I know is that I, for one, will definitely be
watching the 2015 Oscars with one question- If the Oscars won't include
anything to appeal to the younger audience, and most of the films nominated are
indie films thereby alienating their mainstream adult audience, who is going to
watch the show?
Setoodeh, R. (2015, January 16). Why
the Oscars Could Have a Problem Attracting Young Viewers. Retrieved January 23,
2015, from
http://variety.com/2015/film/opinion/why-the-oscars-could-have-a-problem-attracting-young-viewers-1201406226/
Amazing topic! I never realized how subjective awards show are toward young adults. Your argument stands a firm topic. I am always amazed when many movies don't get nominated such as "Gone Girl" as it was an intricate film attracting a large audience including, of course, young adults. Award shows will lose viewers if it is decided to quit attracting young adult viewers.
ReplyDeleteAmazing topic! I never realized how subjective awards show are toward young adults. Your argument stands a firm topic. I am always amazed when many movies don't get nominated such as "Gone Girl" as it was an intricate film attracting a large audience including, of course, young adults. Award shows will lose viewers if it is decided to quit attracting young adult viewers.
ReplyDeleteLoved the article. Glad your actually talking about the awards, which many teen s don't really care about, because some of these actors of directors work their asses off to make a masterpiece and sometimes it doesn't receive the recognition it deserved. They have to do stupid silly things on the show, of course, to appeal and attract a younger audience.
ReplyDelete