The 82nd Academy Awards are taking place this spring on Sunday, March 7, 2010 and once again, a number of wonderful movies have been nominated. Although we share the excitement of another year of award winners and the traditional ceremonies involved, this year many changes will be noticed. The article examines what past tradition has been and what is new about this year's awards.
For the first time, all of the short films will be shown in Cineplex theatres prior to the awards show. Movie showings and times can be found at Cineplex.com. All the live action shorts and animated shorts will be available for viewing. In addition, the number of nominated pictures has been expanded to 10 from 5. Why the change? According to the article, it was to appease the fans. Many times, the nominated films have been what they call "erudite indie dramas" instead of the box-office hits that indicate favour by the general public. This in turn caused ratings to plummet in years where fan favourites were not the winners.
In my opinion, ratings have nothing to do with this. I wonder if other factors come into play - many people lead very busy lives, we have more choice than ever as far as media is concerned, and finances are a concern due to the recession. No longer do we sit around the television watching a limited selection of programs as a family. I remember "Little House" nights in our family when we all gathered together to watch one of our favourite programs. Back then, we had fewer stations, fewer choices and less busy night lives. Now with sports, music lessons, dance and other extra-curricular activities many of us are not at home. We can also watch TV shows on the internet or PVR episodes or catch them later on Rogers on Demand. I also wonder if the price of going to the movies has made an impact. It can be quite costly especially when factoring in snacks. Now that there is a recession, less people can afford to go see the wealth of films offered. For all these reasons, I can count on one hand the number of times I've been able to go to the theatre this year.
In any case, this year's awards promise to be exciting and entertaining. With Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin hosting, a partnership that has yielded stellar performances in "It's Complicated" and episodes of "30 Rock" as well as numerous co-hosting appearances on Saturday Night Live, a humorous show is guaranteed.
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