The Academy Awards: Still Relevant or Just A Popularity Contest? With the pre-Oscars hype already beginning to seep into every media format available, nobody can blame cinema fanatics and the general public alike for being taken in by the gossip that has been rumbling for some time now about who is going to be crowned at next years' ceremony on February, 24. Since the first ceremony was held on May, 16, 1929, the Academy Awards has always been viewed as an event of the highest importance in the world of film, and still carries a tyrannical clout even to this day, although in recent years its status as the primary spectacle has been challenged by the Cannes Film Festival, seen to be the more professionally rewarding because of its tendency to lean towards arty and independent ventures. That said, Cannes will never be able to garner as much worldly attention, a fact that cannot be denied when assessing the power held by American cinema and those one board at The Academy. The Oscars, as the event is informally called, is well and truly the star attraction, a sparkling constellation that cannot be ignored as the elite names of today and yesteryear stride and strut their way up the red carpet, eyes glimmering in the wake of hundreds of flashing cameras, dressed in the finest threads and beautified after hours of primping in a suite at some grand hotel, ready to dazzle the avid fans of the First World. But, after