Hollywood's big night is just around the corner and it will be the culmination of an unbelievably long season of awards shows beginning in December with the Critics Choice awards, moving into January with the Golden Globes and then the SAG awards, not to mention the various guilds (producers, directors, screenwriters) that also give out statutes of various sizes to the best in their crafts.
There are so many that the Academy Awards have become anticlimatic despite their being the most anticipated awards show of the year. At least they used to be.
When I was a kid growing up in the 50s, I would circle the date on which the Academy Awards were held (usually in mid or late March) and count down the days until the big night. My mother, who was as big a fan of movies as myself, would let me stay up late on Oscar night. I couldn't contain my excitement and I would write down all the nominations and check the ones I thought would win. Silly me. Even at a young age I thought the Oscars were given out for artistic achievement and were not a popularity contest. Little did I know that in many instances the major studios dictated who would win Oscars with their expensive advertising and publicity campaigns.
For many years employees at the various studios were were voting members of the Academy were urged to vote for the nominees from their respective studios.
But Oscar night was the most exciting night of the year for me. It was the one time that I got to see many of the giants in the motion picture industry.
In 1953, for example, I got to see Audrey Hepburn take the Oscar for her enchanting performance in ROMAN HOLIDAY. She won out over Leslie Caron (one of my favorite actresses, for LILI), Ava Gardner for MOGAMBO and Deborah Kerr for FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. I saw William Holden take the Oscar for STALAG 17 over Marlon Brando (JULIUS CAESAR), Richard Burton (THE ROBE), Montgomery Clift and Burt Lancaster (FROM HERE TO ETERNITY). And I got to see Frank Sinatra accept his Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. It was this film that rescued
Sinatra from near obscurity as an actor.
My point is Oscar night was memorable because you got to see many of the bigger than life movie stars that you never saw any other time except on the screen at your neighborhood theatre.
This was long before they began to appear regularly on late night talk shows and wherever else they could to publicize their upcoming releases.
Two years later (1955), I got to see Anna Magnani upset Susan Hayward (I'LL CRY TOMORROW) for her role in THE ROSE TATTOO. Also nominated for best actress that year and at the Oscars were Jennifer Jones (LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING) and Eleanor Parker (INTERRUPTED MELODY). Katherine Hepburn, as usual, did not attend as was her habit. She was nominated for SUMMERTIME.
That same year I saw ERNEST BORGNINE accept his best actor oscar for MARTY, beating out James Cagney (LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME), James Dean (EAST OF EDEN), Frank Sinatra (THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM) and Spencer Tracy (BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK).
A small budget film, MARTY, in black and white no less, won best pic honors over big studio films like LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING (Fox), MISTER ROBERTS (Warner Bros) and PICNIC (Columbia).
For some unexplicable reason, Doris Day was looked over for her performance in LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME. Go figure.
I could go on and on and on about all the greats that I got to see that one night of the year during the Oscar telecast. Names like Susan Hayward, who finally got her Oscar in 1958 for I WANT TO LIVE, beating out icons like Deborah Kerr, Shirley MacLaine, Rosalind Russell for her wonderful performance in AUNTIE MAME and Elizabeth Taylor for CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF.
I'll never forget the 1959 Oscars when my idol, Audrey Hepburn,( who was nominated for her performance in one of my all time films, THE NUN'S STORY), was upset by Simone Signoret for ROOM AT THE TOP. I was a senior in high school that year and I cried when they announced Signoret's name. I jumped up and down screaming, "Audrey Hepburn deserved the Oscar. She was robbed. I hate the Academy members whoever they are."
But thru it all, I look back upon those years of viewing the Oscars when I was a teen as truly exciting experiences, a night when I got to see all the stars who thrilled me every week when I went to the movies.
Joan Crawford. Bette Davis. Jimmy Stewart. Charlton Heston. Vivien Leigh. Shelly Winters.
Grace Kelly. Cary Grant. Etc., Etc., Etc.
Fast forward to the present and what you see on Oscar night are actors/actresses who have (for the most part) appeared on every late night variety show pitching their latest film and winners who have already received awards and offered mostly forgettable acceptance speeches at award broadcasts in December and January.
By the time the Academy Awards roll around, it's deja vue and NOT HIM/HER AGAIN.
There's little excitement, not a whole lot of glamour and very little humor and surprises.
I will always carry with me the memory of watching all those wonderful Oscar telecasts back in the 50s and even into the 60s but by the time I moved to LA and began working at Paramount Pictures I had no delusions about the Oscars.
They are more a popularity contest than anything else, at least in the acting categories (see last year's winner, Sandra Bullock) and if any real artistic achievement is acknowledged on Oscar night, it's more a fluke than anything else.
The glamour of yesteryear is long gone and all that's left is hoping there will be a few 'moments' during the long, mostly boring 3-1/2 hour telecast. For me, the last year there were any real surprises and excitement was 2002 when Adrien Brody took the best actor oscar (THE PIANIST), upsetting favorites Jack Nicholson (ABOUT SCHMIDT) and Daniel Day-Lewis (GANGS OF NEW YORK and Roman Polanski won the Oscar for best director (THE PIANIST).
AND THE WINNERS THIS YEAR ARE:
BEST PICTURE - THE KING'S SPEECH (My Choice: THE SOCIAL NETWORK
BEST ACTOR - COLIN FIRTH (My Choice: JAVIER BARHAM
BEST ACTRESS - NATALIE PORTMAN (My Choice: NATALIE PORTMAN
BEST SUPPORTING
ACTOR - CHRISTIAN BALE (My Choice: Anyone but Bale cause I'm
sick of seeing his face)
BEST SUPPORTING
ACTRESS - MELISSA LEO (My Choice: Melissa Leo
BEST DIRECTOR - TOM HOOPER (My Choice: David Fincher
BEST ORIGINAL
SCREENPLAY - DAVID SEIDLER (My Choice: Christopher Nolan for
INCEPTION
BEST ADAPTED
SCREENPLAY - AARON SORKIN (My Choice: Aaron Sorkin
BEST EDITING - THE SOCIAL NETWORK (My Choice: THE SOCIAL NETWORK
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - (My Choice: THE SOCIAL NETWORK
THE KING'S SPEECH
BEST ART DIRECTION - ALICE IN (My Choice: Couldn't Care Less
WONDERLAND
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE - THE KING'S SPEECH (My Choice: THE SOCIAL NETWORK
BEST COSTUME
DESIGN - ALICE IN WONDERLAND (My Choice: Couldn't Care Less
BEST MAKE-UP - THE WOLFMAN (My Choice: Couldn't Care Less
BEST FOREIGN FILM -IN A BETTER WORLD (My Choice: BIUTIFUL cause I've seen it)
BEST SOUND EDITING - INCEPTION (My Choice: INCEPTION
BEST DOCUMENTARY - INSIDE JOB (My Choice: INSIDE JOB
BEST ANIMATED FILM - TOY STORY 3 (My Choice: TOY STORY 3)
BEST SOUND EDITING - INCEPTION (My Choice: INCEPTION)
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS - INCEPTION (My Choice: INCEPTION)
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT,
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM AND
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM - U R on your own
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