FEINBERG FORECAST: Scott's Final Projections for the 84th Academy Awards

A detailed article of the predictions for the Oscars, including all categories and reasoning for these predictions. I found this article interesting to compare to the results of the show. Not too far off!

OSCARS: Awards Season Frenzy Hits Pinnacle At WGA and ACE; End In Sight

This article was posted about a week ago debating who was going to take home the Oscars for the writing categories at the Academy Awards. According to the article, The Descendants was predicted to take home the award. However, for best original screenplay, even though The Artist is the hit movie of the season, Midnight in Paris was a favorite that had the chance to beat The Artist over any other movie within the category.

How To Make The Oscars Not Suck

This article in The Huffington Post says what everyone is thinking...the 84th Academy Awards sucked. It asks the question "How does an industry that's completely geared towards pleasing the masses manage to create an awards show that's zero percent entertaining? We aren't sure, but somehow they did." It is strange that every Academy Awards ceremony of my recent memory has been awful, when so many talented people are involved with it. This article gives three ideas on how to improve the awards next year. Number 1: stop talking about dresses. This trend "takes everything the people (particularly the women) have worked for their entire careers and reduces it to something Mario Lopez could drink with a hot orange swirly straw." Unfortunately it has become no longer about what someone has achieved as an actor, it's about what they are wearing. Number two: explain technical awards to people who don't work in the film industry. It is understandably confusing to the average person what exactly "Art Direction" means. Number 3: make things less formal. Everyone seems on edge wearing bow ties and lavish dresses, which alienates anyone who isn't extremely wealthy. The article argues that "The people who are recognized should be just as accessible and diverse in thought and appearance as the characters from the stories we love."

Oscar< Grammy

The New York Times   reports that the Academy Awards ideal demographic isn't interested again. After trying to get young adult attention last year with James Franco and Anne Hathaway apparently, Billy Crystal did not do the trick. The Oscars did have a slight rise in viewers the 18-49 demographic stayed the same. Yet, in comparison to the Grammy Awards the number of viewers altogether & 18-49 demo had more viewers. Was it just because of the upsetting death of Whitney Houston?

Oscars Ratings Up 4 Percent From 2011

In this article from Entertainment Weekly writer James Hibberd, it's noted that the ratings for the Academy Awards rose slightly from last year's: 

 "ABC’s awards coverage delivered 39.3 million viewers, up 4 percent from 2011, according to the network. In the adult demo, the show received an 11.7 rating, off a tenth from 2011. The program out-delivered three of the past four Oscars telecasts and ranked as ABC’s most-watched program in two years."

However, even with that small increase, it looks like if the Oscars viewership tally is upheld in the Nielsen's rating release tomorrow, this will be the first year that the Grammys pulled a larger audience than the Oscars (a 14.1 rating compared to an 11.7, as noted in the article).

Forbes Names 2012 Oscar's "Disaster"

The caption for this photo on Forbes.com reads "never again." In an article published today Forbes denotes the aspects of the Academy Awards that I'm sure we all noticed last night. The article also offered up some tips for the 85th Academy Awards next year to avoid the bad ratings that could have ensued from this year's awards.

Oscars 2012: An effort to be inclusive

This article from the LA Times notes the noticeable attempt by the Academy at creating a more culturally diverse atmosphere for the awards ceremony.

It was interesting to me that they only mentioned the African-American side of the diversification we saw because it was more than the black community that saw some spotlight.

Iranian director, Asghar Farhadi's "A Separation" won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film which was the country's first Oscar win. Ever.

While I agree with the article in that the award ceremony did seem to obviously embrace the black community a little extra than usual, cultural diversity is not synonymous with African-American people.

It's Crystal Clear: The Oscars Were A Bore

Despite being up 4 percent from last year's telecast (the show managed a 25.5 household rating and a 38 share) the show was still not received well by critics.

Both the Hollywood Reporter (link above) and Deadline complained about the telecast, both agreeing it was too long, there were too many montages, and Chris Rock should host next year.

With the show starting off slow, Crystal's jokes could not seem to pick up as the telecast progressed. There seemed to be a handful of technical problems as well, with millions of online viewers complaining about noise feedback on the mic. The countless montages depicting the magic of movies may have been a little much as well.

"For all of this talk about how the movies are magic (montage, montage, montage), maybe someone in the business could have sprinkled some of that magic on this telecast. It certainly didn’t transport us to another world – unless that world was a show on another channel." - Hollywood Reporter

A hilarious play by play of the show can be seen on Deadline with the hilarious Nikki Finke essentially ripping the show to shreds.

Can Social Media Predict Oscar Winners?

This is an infographic I found that shows which Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Actress nominees social media users favor based on likes and mentions on Facebook and Twitter. 

 

Have Facebook and Twitter users correctly predict The Help as Best Picture winner this year?

The Independent Spirit Awards: Independent From the Oscars

Last night in Hollywood stars from the independent film sector flooded to Santa Monica in honor of the IFC hosted Independent Spirit Awards. The more low key award show of the season, the ISA's are meant to honor the independent films that may be looked over at the Academy Awards and other bigger honors.

However, when it comes to the more well-known films, there seems to be a reoccurring trend with having films like The Artist win both the Spirit as well as the Oscar. If you can believe it, The Artist wasn't as greatly received last night during its win as compared to the other smaller films like Martha Marcy May Marlene and Take Shelter, which were greatly applauded during their respective wins.

Cast Your 2012 Oscar Ballot, Win an iPad

Vote for your favorite Oscar nominees on The New York Times' website and you could win an iPad.  The rules are simple enough:

1. Pick your favorites. 
2. Make a pool with your Facebook friends. 
3. Watch the Oscars on February 26th at 7pm ET and see how your ballot measures up. 

If your ballot has the most correct picks, you're entered in for a chance to win an iPad, so make your votes count!

Academy Award nominees lack stand-out performance

The Academy Award nominations were released Monday, Jan. 23, and with it came the annual discussion of the surprise nominations and snubs among the chosen list.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the Worst Reviewed Best Picture Nomination of the Past Decade

A lot of people have been scratching their heads over notable Oscar snubs and the somewhat boring selection of Best Picture nominations. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has a 48% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a website that averages all of the major critic's reviews together. It is one of only three Best Picture nominations of the past decade to receive a "rotten" rating, and it is by far the worst. This to me says that the Academy has lost touch with the public and is much more willing to play it safe than nominate a controversial film like Drive (which received a 93% rating on RT) or Shame (80%).

Hollywood's Best Kept Secret...The Academy Awards?

The PwC is in its 78th year of balloting for the Academy Awards. It is the best kept secret in Hollywood to date, because without the tremendous effort PwC puts forward to make sure the show runs smoothly, who knows what would've become of the Academy Awards. They are highly trained and highly trusted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which is the main reason why they have continued working together for the past 78 years. It is the little things we tend to over look when watching shows like The Academy Awards, however knowing all of the work that goes in to this, makes the spectacle that much more enjoyable.

The Art of Losing at The Oscars

How the night begins and ends when your name isn't called...

Tough competition for best-actress Academy Award

Meryl Streep took home the Golden Globe for her performance in The Iron Lady, suggesting that she was the potential front runner for the Oscar. However, after Viola Davis won the SAG Award for best actress, it's unclear what the outcome will be at the Academy Awards. While the author of this article believes the other nominees (Glenn Close and Michelle Williams) gave performances worthy of an Oscar nod, many people believe Rooney Mara took the slot that should have went to Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin). Although Close and Williams weren't bad this year, the Oscar for actress in a lead role looks like a close race between Streep and Davis.