Article by Marcus Siu

It used to be so simple. The Academy Award nominations would be announced and six weeks later, movie goers would have more than ample time to search out which theaters are playing the nominated movies so they can be on “top of things” when they attend an Oscar party.

Not so much anymore. Things have changed. Blame it on streaming or blame it on COVID.

TV VIEWERSHIP OF THE OSCARS:

The Academy of Motion Picture Sciences (AMPAS) have recently tried to boost their TV audience ratings for their Oscar telecast, by increasing the number of nominees of Best Picture nominees to ten from five, hoping that the bottom half of the nominees were more mainstream features that most people have seen and connected with. Since over the last one or two decades, movies nominated were deemed too “art house” and not the commercial “box office darlings” titles that the public loved to watch with their bottomless popcorn and soda.

The movies rewarded were deemed more artistic and daring within the industry with their peers…in other words, there wasn’t much of a common ground. Last year, ratings of the Oscar telecast has dropped to 10.4 million viewers, or 60% decrease from the prior year, so much that ABC is thinking of not televising at all.

This year they decided to “eliminate” eight categories from the live telecast and edit them in later for the sake of making sure that the telecast makes the three hour cut. It reminds me of how picture in picture commercials slowly got into sport broadcasts. It’s completely irritating and offensive. .

THE WORLD OF STREAMING

However, the latest threat with movie going these days is that many don’t get a movie theater release date, but a streaming date. Movies are getting all types of distribution and not necessarily a guarantee you will be able to see them in movie theaters. Some are exclusively in theaters, exclusively streaming, same-day streaming and limited release in the theaters. It makes it confusing for the audience to figure out where and how to see such films.

Here’s a question I would like answered: How many of the Academy voting public actually seen all the ten Best Picture nominees in movie theaters before having them been nominated? My guess is that hardly anyone did.

Not only are movie theaters being skipped, which is really the “only way to see a movie”, they are now being streamed on different channels. For example, two movies that are vying for Best Picture have been streaming on Netflix and Apple+. Unless you saw “The Power of the Dog” or “CODA” at a film festival, you probably won’t have access to see it, unless you subscribe to Netflix and Apple TV.

Movies have shifted much of the content away from movie theaters and are now streaming in their living rooms. Unfortunately, that’s not the way $100 million dollar movies should be seen, like “West Side Story”…let alone “Dune”, that was made for $200 million dollars. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more Oscar voters who have watched all ten nominated movies on their cell phone than in the actual theaters We have “dumbified” what essential movie going is all about.

It’s as though we are going through an new “mp3” generation for movies now.

OSCAR PREDICTIONS

Here are my predictions for the 94th Annual Academy Awards.

BEST PICTURE:

It’s the little picture that could. I believe when Apple TV bought this Sundance classic that didn’t even play in the movie theaters in Park City for $25 million dollars, they knew what they were doing. It was the first film that swept the three major Sundance Awards: The Grand Jury Prize, The Audience Award, and the Special Jury Award, as well as the Director’s Prize. For the longest time during the award season, “The Power of the Dog” seemed likely to win the big prize, but CODA, surprised everyone recently winning the SAG Ensemble and Producer’s Guild prizes.

BEST ACTOR

Will it be Will or Benedict? Though Cumberbatch even outdoes himself in “Power of the Dog”, the fact that Will just won at the BAFTA tells me that he will also get the Oscar for “King Richard”. Neither have ever received the Oscar, but the industry gets to choose who the better peer is…and with so much “Will power” in Hollywood, he’s got this cemented. 40-love.

BEST ACTRESS:

The toughest category to predict where all five of the nominees were all career topping performances. My choice is with Jessica Chastain for “The Eyes of Tammy Bakker”. Many people passed on the movie when it came to theaters, not interested in this biopic, but there’s no denying Chastain transformed herself into the evangelical Bakker, and made her seem like a true compassionate person that people in the 80’s never seem to understand . She and Kristen Stewart, who plays Princess Diana, are the only ones in this category to not win an Oscars, and though both of them, as well as the others who have one them, Chastain is well liked by her peers and should have enough support for the win.

MLS Entertainment’s Oscar Predictions:

Best Picture: “CODA”
Best Actor: Will Smith, “King Richard”
Best Actress: Jessica Chastain, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”
Best Supporting Actor: Troy Katsur, “CODA”
Best Supporting Actress: Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story”
Best Director: Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog”
Best Adapted Screenplay: Siân Heder “CODA ”
Best Original Screenplay: Kenneth Branagh “Belfast”
Best Cinematography: “The Power of the Dog”
Best Costume Design: “Cruella”
Best Film Editing: “Dune”
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: “The Eyes of Tammy Faye “
Best Music (Original Score): Hans Zimmer, “Dune”
Best Music (Original Song): “No Time to Die”

Best Production Design: “Dune”
Best Sound: “Dune”
Best Visual Effects: “Dune”
Best Animated Feature Film: “Encanto”
Best Foreign Language Film: “Drive My Car”
Best Documentary (Feature): “Summer of Soul”
Best Documentary (Short Subject): “Lead Me Home”
Best Short Film (Animated): “Robin Robin”
Best Short Film (Live Action): “Please Hold”