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| Yes | 26% | 80 votes | Total: 303 votes | |
| No | 74% | 223 votes |
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Add to FavoritesYou've been nominated for an Oscar. You are thrilled and excited by the honor of just being nominated. You've likely been in your profession for years, maybe even decades, working hard and, while loving it, have never received this kind of recognition.
For weeks there are interviews, reviews, and articles written about you and your work. Friends and colleagues congratulate you daily. You think that you probably won't win, but you write a speech anyway. You spend hours thinking about who you want to thank and about all the people who have helped you along the way, and all the people you love. You choose your words carefully. Your heart is full with appreciation.
And then the day comes. You are wearing couture and jewelry, or a really expensive suit or tuxedo, that you thought you would never wear in a million years. You take someone who means the world to you: your spouse, child, mother, significant other. You are nervous and exhilarated.
Your category comes up, and everything is a blur. You won! The applause and congratulations all meld together into a roar. Everything slows down and speeds up at the same time. Suddenly it is silent, you are at the podium, and millions of people are waiting for you to speak. Your mind reels with all your gratitude, your heart is bursting with joy.
You make it halfway through your speech, the music blares, and the models push you off the stage. What?!?
Being awarded an Oscar is truly, literally, a once in a lifetime occurrence. For many it is recognition of decades of work, or an absolutely stunning performance that blew people away (and this includes work by non-actors). Can you imagine being so honored and only getting seconds to respond in a meaningful way?
And the truth, that seems to have been forgotten by the ceremony's producers, is that people watch the Oscars to see the unscripted, surprising moments that become legendary. The audience wants to see the actors they admire seeming like "regular" people. They want to hear the unexpected jokes, the mistakes, the tearful thanks that touch everyone's heart.
The ratings for the Oscar broadcast have gone down steadily over the years. It is baffling that the producers have responded to this by adding more comedy, song performances, longer introductions by stars that usually fall flat (hey, not everyone is a comedian), and odd video medleys that don't seem to have a purpose. One year there was a "tribute" to westerns that didn't make sense, it wasn't tied to a current movie and it was way too long. These are the kinds of things that start viewers surfing channels. It has even become a big joke that the show is long and boring. Their own hosts make fun of it!
What are the elements that people talk about in the office the next day? The fashion, hair, who is with who, and of course, any controversy about the awarded winners and losers. What is remembered even decades later? The speeches. We still remember Marlon Brando's refusal, Sally Field's "you like me" speech, Halle Berry's touching acceptance. To cut these moments short is to remove a huge part of why the audience is watching in the first place. It reduces spontaneity, emotion, and a chance to see someone experience an incredible moment in their lives. A chance to see that even our stars are human, and have real emotions, gratitude, and yes, even make real mistakes. And what could be better for the movie industry than that? Giving the audience more opportunity to relate to the stars and the moviemakers may actually drive more people to the movies.
People love relating to people. Looking at this desire, it becomes clear that allowing awardees more time to give their speeches, including the lifetime achievement awards, and continuing to show the in memoriam tribute, should be the main aspects of the show. Cutting down on the comedy, introductions, song productions, and video medleys that don't connect with a nominated movie, would remove the bloat and help to create a ceremony that is touching, human, and meaningful. And probably shorter. Heck, maybe the ratings would even increase.
Movies are about our human experiences, emotions, and relationships. Let's celebrate that with a ceremony that remembers and honors that.
Learn more about this author, Alexis Whaley.
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No
"I'd like to thank all the people who made this "Oscar" possible." You know the drill. If it's not thanking all the "little people" who helped them along the way, it's thanking their agent, their hairdresser, their make up artist, the director, the cast, the producer and before the music begins to swell in the orchestra pit because the director has to get the show on the road the winner finally gets around to thanking their high school drama teacher and family members.
Well, maybe this example is a little extreme but there has been the tendency for some Oscar winners to go a little overboard in their acceptance speeches, either thanking those people who might have helped them win or, taking advantage of the large television audience out there (and an international one at that), to use the speech to voice their opinion on some issue.
After having watched the Oscars on television year after the year for as long as I can remember, I have always thought that a number of the acceptance speeches over the years have gone on for far too long for some of the awards handed out. Granted winning an Oscar is an auspicious honor worthy of some words of gratitude to those who might have been responsible for the award winner having won in the first place, but some winners have gone overboard thanking as many people that they can quickly remember while up on stage. I've always felt sorry for the people, who because other award winners had spoken too long, could hardly get a few thank you's out before the swelling music cut them and their acceptance speech short.
I know if I won an Oscar I would want to thank a lot of people and then hope that I wouldn't forget anyone as I rattled off all these names before I was escorted off stage. Inasmuch as anyone who has ever won an Oscar would want to thank those responsible for them winning the award, I believe that there should be a limit on all speeches just to be fair to all award winners. Everyone gets two-three minutes whether you have won for art direction or best original screenplay.
Likewise, all nominees should have a speech prepared just in case. It gets a little old when someone who has just won an Oscar gets up on stage and then has spend a minute or two explaining that they didn't think they were going to win, so they didn't prepare anything. Nothing more annoying to have to watch someone fight for the words and try to rattle their memory banks to remember names of people who helped them win.
At the same time, some award winners forget their audience when they start rattling off these names of people somehow responsible for their Oscar. Sure, maybe the people in attendance in the auditorium know their agent or some film editor, but for the millions of people watching around the world perhaps they are not that interested. I am not suggesting that winners should not thank certain people, but they should know their audience and keep their show of thanks limited.
On the other hand, there have been some excellent and moving acceptance speeches over the years like the one Tom Hanks gave for winning Best Actor for Philadelphia as well as Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman, and when Martin Scorcese finally won for best director last year that would be kind of hard to cut short. These are the kinds of speeches that people want or expect to hear from their favorite actors or directors but is it fair to give someone like a Tom Hanks more time than another winner for film editing or cinematography? Maybe the only fair way is to establish time limits for all winners.
The acceptance speeches are an integral part of any awards show but they are just a part of the show. Therefore, in order to be fair to all winners as in the case of The Academy Awards, the acceptance speeches should be limited and nominees would be advised to have something written down just in case, when they hear, "and the winner is."
Learn more about this author, Jeffrey Miller.
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