This year marked the first time in my working memory that I didn't watch the Oscars. The awards ceremony, intended to highlight the best to grace the silver screen, has been a staple event in my family since before I was born.
It was like another holiday for us. We'd gather together, make our predictions on our ballots and the person with the highest number of correct guesses would win and take home the prize. Participation began to wane over the years as life got in the way, but the Academy Awards still maintained a dedicated slot in my calendar.
Maybe I'm just growing older and wiser. "Staying woke," as the kids say. Whatever it is, the Academy Awards feels less and less about honoring Hollywood's best and brightest and more akin to some masturbatory façade of an awards show.
From nominations to the actual winners, it feels like there's very little consistency for determining what's deserving of an Oscar. Sometimes it seems like box office stunners are the primary focus, other times there are movies that feel like they were almost made specifically to win an Oscar.
The show itself has devolved into a spectacle of the Hollywood elites guffawing and jawing at one another, while we watch from outside the walled garden, hoping one of our favorites takes home some sort of golden recognition.
I'm not the first to bemoan the ceremony, either.
CNN and The LA Times both lament the lack of diversity present amongst nominees, which has been an issue for much longer than many care to admit.
CartoonBrew talks about how the Oscars tends to ignore animation altogether. Some judges don't even bother enough to see the films themselves. They, of course, still get to vote on which film will win.
And one that hits close to home from Forbes criticizes the nomination process entirely, as the anime film "Your Name" didn't even get a nomination, despite its massive global success, about which I've written in the past.
Confirmation bias aside (it's always possible to Google something that supports your position) it's really not difficult to find a plethora of pieces critical of the Oscars and the culture surrounding them.
And even if we ignore all of that, I can't help but feel like each year it becomes less about the winners and more about the drama of the night. An awards ceremony by entertainers for entertainers more focused on entertainment than the works being celebrated? Who would've guessed?
Ultimately, I brought this upon myself. I should never have expected anything different from an American awards show. It's my own fault for carrying over that innocent nostalgia of an Academy Awards show from my memory that is plastered with a rose-colored filter.
There's a good chance the Oscars have always sucked, and I've finally been forced to accept it.
