A History of the Oscars at the Emmys (Can They Win Variety Special, Live, for the First Time?)

by Christopher James

Could continued fervor for the Oscars that awarded Everything Everywhere All At Once lead to an Emmy win for the Oscars ceremony?

The Academy may hand out awards, but they also compete for them! The Oscars regularly compete at the Emmys in the Variety Special categories, having won 7 Emmys from 68 nominations over the past 10 years. This flies in the face of the common joke that the Oscars are regularly the most maligned awards show on the block. Still, Hollywood's big show has never won the Variety Special (Live) prize, nor the Special Class Program award before it. This year’s Oscars got above average reviews, including from The Film Experience. It contends in four categories, including Directing (which it has won twice previously). 

Could a strong show and a great winner with Everything Everywhere All At Once propel the Oscars to a big Emmys win?

Click to read more ...

Toxic Masculinity at the Oscars

by Deborah Lipp

the initial reaction to Rock's joke. Will laughs and Jada clenches her teeth.

The best director Oscar went to a woman for only the third time in history. It went to the only woman who was ever nominated twice. It went to Jane Campion for making a movie about the destructive power of toxic masculinity.

The elephant in the room, given that prize, was Will Smith’s toxic behavior. In case anyone was wondering if the patriarchy is at risk of being overthrown, there’s Smith assaulting someone on stage, in view of millions, and then moments later being applauded for a speech in which he declares he is all about love. He was not stopped, or escorted from the room, and he will face no consequences...

Click to read more ...

Oscar Telecast Ratings Hit Eight-Year Low

We’re currently awash in Oscar numbers and statistics, but there’s another Oscars number to be taken into account. After much discussion of the Academy as an entity leading up to Sunday night, it seemed like public interest would be high going into the ceremony, particularly given the Leo narrative and some high-grossing nominees like The Revenant, The Martian and Mad Max: Fury Road. But numbers for the Oscars telecast for this year have come in, and the Chris Rock-hosted show fell 6 percent to 34.3 million viewers in preliminary numbers and an eight-year ratings low...

If you haven’t already read Kieran’s analysis of Rock’s hosting stint you definitely should, because he gets at a lot of reasons why the ceremony was so uneven and might have put people off watching. But the most telling aspect of the ceremony’s ratings is that the 18-49 demographic only dropped 5 percent, which means that much of the lost audience was older viewers...

Click to read more ...

Chris Rock and the White Elephant in the Room

Kieran, here with an extremely stream-of-conscious analysis of the racial politics of last night's ceremony. Bear with me, gentle reader...

Chris Rock was in an unenviable position.  It’s important to begin with that point because, as Nathaniel has pointed out many times, it’s nearly impossible to get positive reviews as an Oscar host in real time. Even briefly setting aside the identity politics firestorm of stepping into a predominantly white space as a black person, it usually takes at least a year (if not longer) for positive consensus to settle around how an Oscar host performed his or her duties. But let’s get to the white elephant in the room—Chris Rock’s handling of #Oscarssowhite (a hashtag created by activist April Reign). There were many who seemed to be expecting Chris Rock to be some kind of attack-dog, which I will never understand. That’s never been his style and even if it were his style, what does that accomplish?

Click to read more ...

The 88th Academy Awards

Chris Rock's opening monologue will take some time to parse. We'll have time to parse tomorrow, okay? Like most Oscar opening monologues it had a combination of lame expected jokes and great curveball laughs but this time a super uncomfortable crowd, no one knowing when it was okay to laugh surely fearing the camera would be on them. Some of it was really inspired though, and an artful deflection and condemnation simultaneously.

To continue the racial themes he introduces Emily Blunt and "someone even whiter" Charlize Theron, who happens to actually be African. So funny. But in a thinky/smile about it later way if you realize. Both stars of that awful looking Snow White sequel look sensationally gorgeous. Charlize Theron's neckline dives deeper than the whole Best Actor field combined.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY  Spotlight
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY The Big Short

Adam McKay's says his movie is about "financial esoterica" which is surely a first for an Oscar ceremony. 

Another first (and last) for Oscar -- a Stacey Dash appearance. I actually do not get this joke unless... Or, rather, I get it (Stacey Dash being an awful person who wants black history month and the like abolished) but it's super unfunny. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl. 

lots more after the jump

Click to read more ...