Are people still talking about that?
It’s been 2 days and the answer is – yes! The La La Land – Moonlight fiasco was that big. And for good reason. 89 years and there haven’t been any mix-ups quite as large and surprising. I decided to watch the Oscars this year on a last-minute whim and it was completely worth it.
Such a powerful moment.
BEFORE the Oscars and AFTER the Grammys, I made this little doodle:
Because I, like many others, was shocked that Lemonade lost to Adele’s Hello at the Grammys this year. Even Adele wasn’t sure how to feel about it! These shows can be fun to watch, but it might be time to stop reveling in the status that an Oscar / Grammy / Emmy comes equipped with. The most-sold album of the year should be remembered by the impact it had on its listeners, not by a faceless committee of people who are out of touch with what the album or movie meant to us in the general public.
Just last year, Lady Gaga performed an incredibly powerful song about sexual assault based on her own experiences, was accompanied by survivors, and Brie Larson, who played a victim of abuse in The Room, won the Best Actress Oscar. This year, she had to award the Best Actor Oscar to a known man who has been accused of sexual assault multiple times. So do the people running these award ceremonies really care about sexual assault, diversity and issues that affect people in the country and around the world? Or do they just want to pretend like they do? This year was more of a win for diversity at the Oscars than in years past, but all awards shows should be held to much higher standards in years to come.
It’s fantastic that Moonlight won Best Picture, it’s awkward that the creators of La La Land gave most of their acceptance speech before realizing the truth, and it’s important that these award shows are held to high standards. Normals need to comment on the way major organizations function, or else they’ll keep getting away with the same junk every year FOREVER. And while we can all say the biggest mistake of the evening was not the presenters’ faults (can we say that?) Faye Dunaway was overheard saying she f’d it up.
Here are some of my favorite memes/gifs that came out of the debacle that was the Oscars 2017! Plus one gif I made that is completely unrelated! #internetart
Melissa Emily Dittrich 
The Oscars are just one of the many unnecessary award shows that stir gossip and trouble like Fbook. They’re like nasal congestion. Do we really need them? How many award shows before everyone gets an award and forgets the value?
The whole diversity issue was exaggerated. Just because two years went by without a black or “person of color” being chosen for an award doesn’t mean all people of color have been excluded. It just meant there weren’t any notable films with those people in them those years. Not every year is a stellar year for every type of person or nationality. So, it became a thing; and then this year’s Oscars make the topic so apparent in its sort of apologetic presentation. I suppose I could have just cast off my cynicism and enjoyed what happened. But, I couldn’t; I couldn’t help feeling the “good vibes” were more apology/compensation than celebration. [And, poor Denzel getting beaten by the Manchester.]
In short, I don’t enjoy the Oscars the way I did as a kid watching Billy Crystal in so many guises, hosting the award show. Now, I try to make a game of watching. And, luckily, there are the few nice touches like the attempt at making short films from grocery lists (which was rather disappointing in terms of results) and the delivery of treats during the show. The Matt Damon running gag was decent, too.
Do you think the bald guy (a producer of La La Land, I think) was secretly furious or genuinely nervous about revealing the truth about the mistake at the end (when he flashed the real card)? It was hard for me to tell.