Over the three decades I have watched the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ status as an elite tastemaker vaporise, and awards season become a long, politicised hunger games among exhausted contestants. With the mystique of Hollywood’s signature event so eroded, it’s sad to dispel the myths that survive – but these legends deserve to be played off the stage by the orchestra.
1. The academy and the public never agree.
In 2009, when the best-picture roster controversially expanded to include as many as 10 films, academy President Sid Ganis told reporters, “I would not be telling you the truth if I said the words ‘Dark Knight’ did not come up” in the discussion. That film’s omission in 2008, when oatmealy dramas such as “Frost/Nixon” and “The Reader” nabbed top nominations, furnishes convenient “proof” of the academy’s alleged anti-commercialism.
Actually, 18 of the past 25 best-picture winners, and six of last year’s nine nominees, grossed more than $100 million in the United States alone, still the industry-standard metric for major hits. Eleven winners ranked among the biggest draws in the years they were released. The only low-grossing winner during this period was “The Hurt Locker,” which barely eclipsed the box-office supernova “Avatar,” if their split of major pre-Oscar prizes is any indication.
2. Winning an Oscar boosts an actor’s career.
Marcia Gay Harden described her best-supporting-actress win to Premiere magazine as “disastrous on a professional level,” because “suddenly the parts you’re offered become smaller and the money less.” Promising careers often wobble or worse after the big night: Mira Sorvino, Cuba Gooding Jr., Roberto Benigni , Mercedes Ruehl and Adrien Brody have never gotten film roles equal to those for which they won. Perennial also-rans Susan Sarandon and Ren
