Like many others, I firmly believe that the worst thing anyone who holds movies in reverence can do is watch the annual Academy Awards broadcast. But my Beef with Oscar Night goes beyond the obligatory railing against the bonehead nominations and inexplicably allocated awards that pop up every year. No, I am not writing another over-obvious protest of the completely subjective and extremely political process that picks out the winners and losers on Oscar night. Instead, I am writing because I believe the greatest tragedy of Oscar night lies not in the flawed nomination process, but in the execution of the Oscar ceremony itself and how the Academy, hungry for advertising money and ratings shares, has turned what should be a prestigious, night of honor and celebration for lovers of American film, into a shallow spectacle of celebrity, populism and ego that most true film lovers are too embarrassed to watch. For those of us who love movies there is no doubt that Film is art, the quintessential American art.
Movies can change our emotional landscape.
They can alter our perceptions forever, or they can simply make us feel really good. The effect a movie can have on an audience, or, even the world as a whole, is awesome. Film, when it realizes its highest aspirations, is not a trivial diversion. It is something of immeasurable cultural power, a thing of depth and emotion. A thing of substance.