After comedian Kevin Hart stepped down as the host of this year’s Academy Awards, the Academy made the unusual decision to have no host for the Oscars. The decision was shocking and people wondered what the ceremony would look like. The last time the live show had no host was 30 years ago, and reportedly it did not go well. However, I think this is a great decision. The Oscars ceremony doesn’t need a host to pull off a great show.
Tick-tock…
I love watching the Oscars. I do my best to see all nominees for Best Picture before the ceremony happens (I only have three left.) But the ceremony is LONG. The 2002 Oscars clocked in at 4 hours and 23 minutes. I believe that’s the among the biggest reasons the ratings continue to drop. They honor movies not many people have seen and hold the ceremony on a Sunday night. Also known as the time when many people are hitting the hay early in anticipation of the upcoming workweek. In 2017, my husband and I stopped watching and went to bed right before the infamous “Moonlight/La La Land” debacle. But, thanks to the almighty internet and the 24 hour news cycle, we caught all the action the next morning.
“Who are you wearing?” “Nike!”
Not only will the ceremony have no host, the Academy has instituted strict new time limits for acceptance speeches. Winners used to get 45 seconds once they hit the stage, but now they’ll only get 90 seconds from the time their name is called. Woah! We’d better hope Lady Gaga isn’t wearing some crazy shoes to slow her down! In all seriousness, this is an awful rule. The technical element and documentary nominees typically don’t get to sit as close to the stage, so a lot of their deserved thank-you time will be eaten up by sprinting to get onstage.
Where my ladies at?
Another bone I have to pick with the Academy Awards is that they failed to nominated any women for Best Director this year. After last year’s high-profile “Time’s Up” and “#metoo” movements, embraced by women and men alike on red carpets all over Hollywood, you’d think they’d nominate ONE lady. Only five women have been nominated for the prestigious award in the Academy’s history. Only one of those nominees has won (Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”.)
Despite all of this, I’m still looking forward to the ceremony, hoping that the lack of a host will make the whole thing a bit more condensed. That 90-second-speech rule seems cruel to the non-famous nominees, but hopefully it’ll help speed things along, too. I know the Oscars and Hollywood in general get a lot of flack for seeming out of touch, sometimes deservedly so. But I strongly encourage you to watch the films nominated. Appreciate film the same way you might do with a painting. Take in the living, moving art. See what humans can create together. And tune in on February 24th with me!
