The Academy Awards, the most extravagant of the annual American entertainment industry love-ins, have come and gone. As usual, there were debates about the merits of the winners, controversies concerning the ceremony and presenters, endless discussions about the wardrobe of the stars and then, a consensus that it was a rather average affair.
Perhaps that's not surprising. As The National's Hollywood columnist Rob Long has pointed out, the reality of the Oscars is that many of those who vote don't actually see the movies they commend. Even if they do, at an average age of 63 and overwhelmingly white and male, they don't represent the moviegoing audience. The films that make it big at the box office often don't win awards, which raises the question: if LA's movers and shakers don't support the film industry properly by watching each year's offerings, why should the rest of us care about the awards they give out?
