Academy Awards: Where the laughs at
Each year, I get more excited about the Academy Awards than my friends do when they anticipate the season premiere of "The Office" or the season finale of "24." This year's ceremony starts on Sunday at 7 p.m., and the Oscars will be, like they are every February, a summary of everything I've seen in the past year: the best fashion, the best movies and the best movie stars all rolled into one beautiful three-hour package.The Academy Awards also function as a sort of documentary by recording the year's history in movies: Best Picture winner Gone with the Wind will forever be known as the classic film of 1939, and Audrey Hepburn's performance at the young age of 24 in Roman Holiday is immortalized thanks to her win of the Best Actress award in 1954.
There are many other award ceremonies that happen each year, such as the Screen Actor's Guild Awards and the Golden Globe Awards, but I have always considered the Academy Awards to be the best because they are the oldest and classiest of the three; cocktail-length dresses are a no-no and floor-length is the norm in comparison to the other two ceremonies. Additionally, the Oscars have the best emcees, such as Steve Martin and Ellen DeGeneres.
My faith has become somewhat disillusioned lately, however, as the Academy appears to have become a bit snobby since its founding in 1927. Serious, dramatic films have overtaken the Awards, thereby crowding out quality comedies and musicals that are just as worthy of the award but do not have the prestige of their more dramatic competition.
While the first ceremony in 1929 gave Oscars for Best Comedy Direction and Best Dramatic Direction, this recognition of comedies and musicals had disappeared by the following year, when the Academy decided to drop the comedic and dramatic specifications. On the other hand, the Golden Globes have kept an award for Best Comedy or Musical, along with the award for Best Drama.
This isn't to say that the Academy never recognize comedies or musicals. In 1978, Woody Allen's Annie Hall won a deluge of awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay. The Sound of Music also won five Oscars, along with five other nominations, in 1966.
In recent years, however, comedies and musicals haven't won any significant Oscars. While some say it's just an honor to be nominated, the Academy has shown a distinct preference for its dramatic nominees over the comedic or musical ones.
For example, Dreamgirls received three nominations in 2007 for its original songs, only to lose to its competitor, Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth, and its song "I Need to Wake Up" by Melissa Etheridge. Even though Etheridge's strained, raspy voice cannot even compete with Dreamgirls' Jennifer Hudson, An Inconvenient Truth won because of its seriousness and more esteemed social agenda. Since when does a politician's propaganda win over a classic Hollywood film? The Golden Globes, on the other hand, gave Dreamgirls the even more prestigious award for Best Musical or Comedy.
In 2002, Moulin Rouge! received eight nominations but only won for Art Direction and Costume Design, losing the two major Awards, Best Picture and Best Actress (Nicole Kidman).
In the most recent Academy Awards, Juno's original and quirky protagonist played by Ellen Page lost the Award for Best Actress to La Vie en Rose's mournful Marion Cotillard. While Cotillard obviously did a good job in her role, does the fact that Cotillard acted in a drama make her a better actress than comedian Page?
Other quality comedy (or, at least, dramedy) films to receive one or two nominations but absolutely no Oscar wins are 1987's The Princess Bride and 1989's Field of Dreams. These are classic films that everyone enjoys today, but they will not be remembered as the best or defining films of their times because they did not win Best Picture.
Ultimately, the Academy Awards have come to associate quality with drama. I find this to be rather a misstep in judgment, as audiences often enjoy comedies, or at least pay more money to see them. For example, Dreamgirls made $103 million at the box office, while An Inconvenient Truth garnered a measly $49 million, a clear indicator that audiences preferred Dreamgirls.
Like I said, the Academy Awards have become a bit snobby for me. While they could have redeemed themselves by even nominating a comedy or musical for Best Picture, all of the films nominated this year are dramas, with Slumdog Millionaire being the closest to a musical since it has a song-and-dance number during the credits (which garnered it a nomination for Best Song). I'm not saying that this year's nominees aren't worthy of the Oscar, but I believe that the Academy should return to its roots of being more open and properly recognizing worthwhile comedies and musicals.
Jackie Ammons is a Brown College junior.
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