If you are a big fan of cinematography you probably wonder about Oscars this year. How will it look? What changes have been made? I will write about all we know at this moment in this article.
How it looked like in the past
Firstly, let me remind you how The Academy Award ceremony looked like before COVID-19 pandemic. But first things first. Prior to the ceremony, which usually took place in February, an official list of nominations was announced in mid-January. In order to get a nomination from Academy a movie had to follow some crucial rules which were:
- A film must be released in the previous calendar year, from midnight at the start of January 1 to midnight at the end of December 31
- A film had to be played for seven consecutive days in at least one cinema in Los Angeles County, California (except for the Best International Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature, and awards in short film categories).
Once the nominees are announed, there is a plurality voting among all members of the Academy, with the most voted nominee receiving the prize. Then the ceremony itself takes place, where winners are awarded the Oscars, and it is broadcasted worldwide. For the last 19 years it took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
Things will be different this year
The first major change in this year's Oscars is the date. Ceremony has been postponed to April 25th, 2021. In spite of that, nominations also have been delayed to March 15th, 2021. It is the latest ceremony ever in the history of the Award. The rules of eligibility have also changed. Now, the Academy will accept movies that will be released between January 1st, 2021 and February 28th, 2021. Another change is the cinema requirment. This year movies that were released via Video-on-Demand (VOD) or streaming services are also eligible for nomination.
What we still don't know
Despite the fact that the ceremony is taking place in around four months from today, we still don't know much about how it will be organized. There are still questions about a host of the ceremony. In the last two years no host entertained the audience, and the viewership suffered. Oscars in 2020 were the least watched Oscars broadcast since 1974. It is still not determined whether the ceremony will actually take place at Dolby Theatre, because of the restrictions that are currently imposed in the U.S. The Academy still hasn't taken a stand on this matter.
Questions:
- Have you ever watched the Oscars? Have you ever considered watching it?
- Have you ever watched a movie only because it won an Oscar? What movie was it? Did it live up to your expectations?
- What are your predictions for this year's nominees for Best Picture? Have you watched a movie this year which you think should be awarded Best Picture?
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Awards
Photos:
1. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.pl%2Fbiznes%2Foscary-selfie-ellen-degeneres-i-aktorow-hollywood-reklama%2Fthtg14k&psig=AOvVaw0GLuXK0-cKiJalasIYrM4u&ust=1611233184357000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCJCj27_Fqu4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAI
2. https://bi.im-g.pl/im/df/7d/18/z25681631V,Oscary-2020--Brad-Pitt-z-pierwszym-aktorskim-Oscar.jpg
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dolby_Theatre_v2.jpg
Title photo: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sensacine.com%2Fnoticias%2Fcine%2Fnoticia-18574633%2F&psig=AOvVaw3jzvwmHBKlaNxuXxN8qSs3&ust=1611233475037000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCPCL2MrGqu4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
Comments
To be honest, I have never watched the Oscars. I am bored with such an event, besides, in recent years the Oscars have become very political, whether a production or a person gets an award or not does not change much. There are many famous actors who never won an Oscar, for example the legendary man Tom Cruise. Did the lack of reward change something in his life? I sincerely doubt it.
Have you ever watched a movie only because it won an Oscar? What movie was it? Did it live up to your expectations?
Yes, I watched a few movies, for example "Operation Argo", mega political, basically a good movie, but not outstanding - such an action movie. I do not try to look at reviews of films and series before the screening begins, the only thing that interests me is the viewers (not film critics) ratings.
What are your predictions for this year's nominees for Best Picture? Have you watched a movie this year which you think should be awarded Best Picture?
In this strange year, not many large productions were made. In my opinion, many prizes should be won by the latest film by Christoper Nolan - "Tenet". I agree, it's a heavy film in reception, you have to watch it carefully, preferably 2-3 times, to understand something happened in it. However, as a director, Nolan brings something new to the movies, his movies always require attention and thought, they are refreshing for the whole industry.
And so I've never based my choices of movies I want to watch on Oscar prizes. My choice of movies is based mostly on my friends' recommendations, other reviews I find on the internet, and most of all, the topic and genre of the movie.
If I have to choose my nominee for the Oscars, it'll be Guy Ritchie's "The Gentlemen". It's definitely my kind of movie. To be honest, that's the only movie worth mentioning I've watched this year. So I scrolled through the top-rated movies of 2020 on Rotten Tomatoes, and most of them were not that interesting at all. If I had to choose another one, it'll be "I'm Thinking of Ending Things", just because it was so confusing and mind-wrecking.
2. I usually watch most of/all the movies from the “Best Animations” list, as it is my profession and something really interesting for me. It’s good to know these titles, as a good conversation point and just to be oriented in the business. Last Oscar movie I have watched was “I lost my body” and it was really nice. Something different in realization as well as the history itself. Funny thing is - it did not win the award and I haven’t seen “Toy Story 4” which actually won that year.
3. As Oscars don’t interest me too much, I have no idea which movies will be or can be nominated. I think this year can be quite hard for making guesses and keeping up with the movies, considering the fact, that for example in Poland cinemas were closed throughout most part of this year and screenings were impossible. Nowadays I watch mostly Netflix and unfortunately, I don’t recall any movie that could deserve this award or is worth recommending.
Thanks for sharing! I watched "Tenet" too, and I think that Nolan will get many nominations for this movie, but propably won't get Best Picture because in my opinion it's too complex. On the other hand this movie says about humans destroying Earth which is a very hot topic in Hollywood right now.
I have to say that Guy Ritchie is one of my favourite movie director, and I definitely have to watch "Gentlemen". If it's like his other movies I'm guessing that he will get nomination for Best Film Editing because he's absolutely a genius in this matter.
Great idea for a party! I have to try it myself with my movie addicted friends. If you haven't watched "Toy Story 4" I will recommend watching it for you although I think that "Toy Story 3" was a lot better. Despite that I think that you won't be dissapointed, there is a lot of fun and sad moments, and animation is amazing.
Well you are talking about last year movies... But I have to agree with you. "Joker" is very overrated, but there is one piece of this movie which is absolutely outstanding and I'm talking of course about Joaquin Phoenix's acting.
1. Have you ever watched the Oscars? Have you ever considered watching it?
I have watched the Oscars many times as I just love watching great movies and I believe most of the movies that are nominated are worth watching. The Oscars have been changing for many years. Firstly, in my opinion they became too “politically correct“ and unfortunately it affected the main reason why people watch them. I understand that everybody would like to share something that can make a positive impact on our planet or many communities in the world, however if everybody does, the Oscars are missing their main point, which is some kind of evaluation of the movies, actors, directors etc. Secondly, three years ago there was an issue with Kevin Hart, who had some homophobic tweets are did not apologies for them, which resulted in not having enough time and not having the host for the past two years. It really changed the whole show, and in my opinion, this is another reason people have stopped watching the Oscars.
2. Have you ever watched a movie only because it won an Oscar? What movie was it? Did it live up to your expectations?
I have done it many times. Actually, I watched the Parasite after it won four Oscars and unexpectedly for the first time in history, not an American Film won the Best Picture. In my opinion the film was just outstandingly great. The comparison between two families that are in completely different financial situations and have absolutely dissimilar problems in their life was just amazing. Not only the Parasite lived up to my expectations, but also exceeded them in a positive way. I highly recommend watching the Parasite as it is just cinematography at its best!
3. What are your predictions for this year's nominees for Best Picture? Have you watched a movie this year which you think should be awarded Best Picture?
The 2020 was a tough year for almost every industry and unfortunately it also includes the cinematography. In my opinion we did not have many great movies in the past year and I really hope that I am wrong about this and maybe the Oscars will prove me wrong. I have to be honest that I have not watched many new movies from 2020. However, if I had to choose one film that deserves a nomination for Best Picture, I would choose the Minari. A beautiful story about the struggling family and their circumstances. If you have not seen it, I also highly recommend it.
No, I never did. The reason is that I'm just not interested in watching. But I believe I've seen some celebrities speeches at the Oscars. And the last thing I saw was Angelina Jolie's speech. II found it so heartwarming.
• Have you ever watched a movie only because it won an Oscar? What movie was it? Did it live up to your expectations?
No never. Sometimes after I watched something I might find out that this movie won an Oscar. But never watched anything on purpose just because this film won an award.
• What are your predictions for this year's nominees for Best Picture? Have you watched a movie this year which you think should be awarded Best Picture?
Again, it is hard to say. I haven't seen anything memorable for this year
2. I watched a lot of movies just because they won an Oscar or even just because they were nominated for some award. This gives absolutely no guarantee that I will like the movie, but I can at least be sure that the movie has been appreciated by the film-producing community.
3. The summaries of this year often say that good films must be waited until the end of the pandemic. Still a significant part of selling movies is selling to cinemas, and for the last year the cinemas have been closed. Producers and distributors of films at the moment prefer to wait for the premiere of the already finished film until the cinemas are open again, because it will result in higher earnings. In fact, there were very few big films this year. Next year will be awesome for sure.
The Oscars are an event with traditions. This year it will be the 93rd ceremony. However, I am not worried about the organization level of the event itself. The Game Awards, the equivalent of the Oscars in the video game industry, was held as impressive as in previous years, but without the participation of the audience. Moreover, thanks to full digital access, the event was watched by more people than in previous years.
I don't choose films to watch by the number of oscars it's got, although it counts. There were some movies I decided to watch because of their oscars, mostly dramas, and to be honest, I trully didn't like them. I can't really recall what movies where there, but I remember clear feeling of dissatisfaction.
Last question is the hardest one. I didn't really see so much movies this year, due to covid-realted cinema-shutdown. I think one movie I'm sure to get oscars (not best picture necesserily) is Nolan's Tenet. Usually Christopher Nolan comes in and swoops his fair share of movie rewards, every single time.
2. I think I never watched a movie only because it won an award. The thing is that movies that win at Oscar's usually are good by themselves and you find out about them before they get nominated. Who watches the movie just because someone nominates it? You know that people who judge movies on Oscar's have seen so any movies that their taste and decision can sometimes be not understood by common movie enjoyer?
3. I don't know about the best picture. My prediction is that "Tenet" will win "best music" award. "Project Power" could win best special effects also. This year so few movies were released, it's just sad :(.
To be honest, I have never seen the Oscars awards live before. I've seen some replays/highlights from these events on youtube. I'm not very interested in this topic so I think it's a bit of a waste of time for me. The next day, usually in the morning news, I find out who won the prize.
2. Have you ever watched a movie only because it won an Oscar? What movie was it? Did it live up to your expectations?
No, I never watched the film because it received an Oscar. However, I once watched a movie after it received an Oscar. If I remember correctly, it was a film called Parasite, which I liked very much, it was a completely different film than the ones I had seen so far, I liked it. However, I did not watch it because it was awarded, just because I wanted to watch it. I often come across the opinion that films that received an Oscar are boring and watching them is a waste of time.
3. What are your predictions for this year's nominees for Best Picture? Have you watched a movie this year which you think should be awarded Best Picture?
Unfortunately, I do not know much about the Oscar nominations. For this reason, it is difficult for me to give my prediction, because I don't even know in what categories the votes are conducted. If I could choose any movie or series from this year as the one I liked most, it would definitely be The Queen's Gambit. Due to the pandemic, a lot of film premieres have been postponed until next year so I haven't seen too many of them this year.
I have never watched the whole ceremony, but I have seen some clips of it from past years on the internet, as some of them have become quite memorable like the photo that you have posted or Joaquin Phoenix's speech from last year.
• Have you ever watched a movie only because it won an Oscar? What movie was it? Did it live up to your expectations?
I think that I did. The Oscar award and even the nomination itself has been seen as prestigious and has definitely made an impact on the reception of the films throughout the years. It is a great way to advertise a movie and often times you can see where it was nominated and if there were any prizes that the film has received on posters. If the movie was successful enough and it was inspired or based on a book, after the nominations for Oscars you can find that sales of the book to which the film is related to are suddenly rocketing. Before the pandemic, I enjoyed going to the cinema quite often, and I would often choose the movies that were nominated either for the Oscars, the BAFTA, Berlinale or at the festival in Cannes, rather than the ones without any nominations. My all-time favourite movie that was nominated for the Oscars in 2017 is Call me by your name, directed by Luca Guadagnino, and I was disappointed that it hadn't won. The movie that won the prize for the Best Picture that year was The Shape of Water, which I also saw, but it wasn't as close so moving like the former one.
• What are your predictions for this year's nominees for Best Picture? Have you watched a movie this year which you think should be awarded Best Picture?
I don't really have any predictions for this year nominees, as unfortunately there was no option for me to visit a movie theatre since the pandemic began. I did however managed to see a very touching and wonderful movie A beautiful day in the neighbourhood directed by Marielle Heller. It is said to be premiered in 2019, but it premiered in Poland at the beginning of 2020, and if it were up to me, it would definitely be a winner for the Best Picture.
No never even parts. I don't really like this kind of shows and never interested on it.
Have you ever watched a movie only because it won an Oscar? What movie was it? Did it live up to your expectations?
No I have never, usually I am googling the movie once I watched it just to know the history of the movie. The only thing there was a lot of hype that Leo Di Caprio won the oscar so I watched that movie. The movie was okay, like I can watch it once.
What are your predictions for this year's nominees for Best Picture? Have you watched a movie this year which you think should be awarded Best Picture?
I did but I have no idea about predictions for this year's nominees for Best Picture.
I don't know the criteria for the movie to be called the Best Picture, I just watch what I like
I've never watched the Oscars and I don't plan to. I don't find this kind of events entertaining to watch, and I'm satisfied with just checking who won after the event.
2. Have you ever watched a movie only because it won an Oscar? What movie was it? Did it live up to your expectations?
I haven't, but I plan to watch "Parasite", I've heard a lot of good opinions about the movie. Although I've rewatched "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and I can say that the trilogy deserves every oscar and nomination it got.
3. What are your predictions for this year's nominees for Best Picture? Have you watched a movie this year which you think should be awarded Best Picture?
I don't know, i wasn't keeping up with movies this year, so it's hard for me to tell whay movies should be nominated.
I've been watching the Oscars since I was 17. Even though it starts quite late due to time differences between Poland and the United States, it is a very good show. The hosts often joke and put the audience in a good mood.
2. Have you ever watched a movie only because it won an Oscar? What movie was it? Did it live up to your expectations?
It could be so. However, I watch all the good movies before they even get nominated for an Oscar. This award does not make me want to watch the movie. I have a narrow taste in movie, so this is not the first criterion that I follow when watching a given production
3. What are your predictions for this year's nominees for Best Picture? Have you watched a movie this year which you think should be awarded Best Picture?
Due to the pandemic, 2020 passed very quickly for me. Theaters are closed, a lot of productions have been moved to 2021, such as the new James Bond movie. This year I have not seen anything worthy of such a prestigious award.
No I haven't. Usually I just check the news after getting up next morning. I just don't picture myself enjoying watching an event like that for few hours. I considered it, I won't deny it, but I've never watched it.
2.Have you ever watched a movie only because it won an Oscar? What movie was it? Did it live up to your expectations?
To be honest not. I just watch a movie because I think it might be interesting or someone told me about it being fun. In my opinion getting an Oscar doesn't necessarily mean that a movie is worth watching. Throught the years we have seen movies or actors that won one but didn't deserve it. Of course it is just an opinion but still some of the winners were really suprising and undeserved.
3.What are your predictions for this year's nominees for Best Picture? Have you watched a movie this year which you think should be awarded Best Picture?
Unfortunately I haven't been watching too much movies this year. The reason for that is cinemas being closed for the most of the year which is really unfortunate. I don't really like watching movies alone. I would rather watch a tv series or sentertain myself some other way.
I have never watched the Oscars, mainly because of the time it was broadcasted at. I preferred checking the results the following day, instead of staying whole night for it.
Also, as stated in your presentation, the Oscars in 2020 and 2019 haven't had a presenter, which makes it a lot more boring to watch I'm not surprised this year ceremony was the least watched since 1970s.
2. Have you ever watched a movie only because it won an Oscar? What movie was it? Did it live up to your expectations?
No, the amount of the Oscars a movie got, had no influence on my choice to watch it. Although, last year winner, movie called "Parasyte" was brought to my attention only because it won an Oscar. It's a Korean movie, so I probably wouldn't have heard of it otherwise.
The Oscars are also wide-known for their controversies. Many people disagree with the movies which are awarded, so even if someone's movie got an Oscar, it doesn't automatically make it a masterpiece.
3. What are your predictions for this year's nominees for Best Picture? Have you watched a movie this year which you think should be awarded Best Picture?
I think because of Coronavirus, people weren't that keen of going to cinema to watch movies, and same goes for me. I checked the predictions for 2021 Oscars nominations, and I don't recall watching a single one of these movies. It may be, because they weren't released on Blu-ray yet, or I just missed them, as I don't watch a lot of movies.
Yes, I've been waitching this event every year for 7 years now.
Have you ever watched a movie only because it won an Oscar? What movie was it? Did it live up to your expectations?
I only watched one film thinking that it won something and it was Birdman. It was kinda cool,
What are your predictions for this year's nominees for Best Picture? Have you watched a movie this year which you think should be awarded Best Picture?
I have o predictions this year, I was worinkg with others things and had no time to watch some movies. But I will watch Oscars for sure. :p
I watched Parasite and I think the same way as you. It's absolutely outstanding piece of art and I highly recommend it for everyone.
@Gabriela Szczesna
The movie Call me by your name that you are reffering to is also one of my favourites. The climate of Italy is something that I wanna feel the whole time. Although as much as I like this movie I also don't like watching it because of a very sad ending at which I cry everytime.
Thanks for sharing. I also miss going to cinema and I can't wait to go there this year.
@Grzegosz Rostek
You should definitely watch Parasite, you won't be dissapointed. I'm not a big fan of "The Lord
of the Rings", but I also think that these movies are great. What surprises me even more is that
the special effects of these movies are really good even now after almost 20 years of premiere.