Hollywood Award Shows: Why They're "Out of Touch"

According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, this was the best movie of 2005.

The Emmys and the Oscars, the cream of the crop in awards in television and film. They're also well known today for being almost hilariously out of touch with the general public. Or are they? Are the Emmys really just an organization that is easily influenced by campaigns for votes, "very special episodes," and completely out of character or out of premise episodes? Are the Oscars easily influenced by movies that were not blockbusters, movies written by talented newcomers, or giving awards to people for a lifetime of work even if someone else deserves the award more? Well...... quite frankly, yes.

Most people don't realize this, but the acting and writing awards at the Emmys are awarded for individual episodes, not the past season. Because of this rule, it is not uncommon for shows to contain "very special" episodes. You know the kind of episode, the one where a supporting character with no previous personal problems develops a drug habit, finds out they're adopted, a cousin we never knew existed is gay, a previously unseen parent is revealed to not care at all about their kids, etc.! As such, it is pretty common for someone to win an acting award for an episode deliberately written as what can be called "Emmy Bait." This applies even more so to animated and children shows because they can only apply for one award which is based on one episode. Next time the Emmys are on, do your research beforehand and see what episodes actors and writers are being nominated for rather than the actor's performance overall or the show's writing the past season.

When it comes to the Oscars, politics become even more evident. Although some people believe that the Academy chooses to deliberately nominate poor performing, pretentious, independent movies, the truth is that the voters have poor memories and will generally only remember movies released in the last 2 months before the deadline. As such, studios will sometimes deliberately delay the release of a movie until December, hoping that it will be nominated for as many awards as possible. Of course, this is only a small part of the politics, such as there is Emmy Bait, there is also Oscar Bait.

A gladiator movie. A story about a mentally ill genius. A popular Broadway musical. A fantasy epic. A woman in a man's world told she cannot succeed. People dealing with their racial prejudices. A gangster movie. A movie based on a book of little notoriety. A movie based on another book of little notoriety, but this time taking place in a foreign country. A topical war movie without a political message. Do these movies sound familiar? They should, they are (in order) Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Chicago, The Lord of the Rings, Million Dollar Baby, Crash, The Departed, No Country for Old Men, Slumdog Millionaire, and The Hurt Locker: the winners of Best Picture from the last 10 years. Of these 10 movies, seven are considered Oscar Bait. Today, only Gladiator, The Lord of the Rings, and The Hurt Locker continue to get praise.

What about the acting Oscars? How many of those are truly deserved? Out of the 4 acting categories, the winners of Best Supporting Actor and Actress probably deserve their awards the most, but not always. Probably two of those "undeserved" awards recently given out are to Dame Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love and Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine. While there's no doubting their acting talents, the amount of screen time they have in their respective movies is minimal at best. In Dench's case, she was more awarded for her career of work rather than playing Queen Elizabeth for 10 minutes. In Arkin's case, he was awarded for his long career as well as playing a character made memorable by good writing, not good acting.

Holocaust movie. Movie based on a book. Lead character is illiterate. Movie ends with lead actor wearing heavy makeup. Lead actress appears nude. Successfully nominated for tons of awards. Only succeeded in a Best Actress award for Kate Winslet, mostly awarded for her career of work rather than this one film.

Play a real person in a movie. Play someone with mental health issues. Play a real person with mental health issues. Play a real person with mental health issues during the Holocaust. PLAY A REAL PERSON WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES DURING THE HOLOCAUST WHO IS GAY. Oscar. Doesn't fail. Even if the movie itself fails to win Oscars, the actors probably will.

Of course, Oscar Bait doesn't always work....

Movie based on a Broadway musical. Award winning cast. Made by the same crew as a previous Oscar winner. Extremely negative reviews and poor box office returns. Successfully nominated for 4 academy awards and 5 Golden Globes. Yet, it won a whopping zero of those awards.