Not necessarily everything that surrounds the Oscars has a cinematographic vocation. Success stories, failures, vindictive speeches or injustices are a necessary part of any Oscars Gala. Its 91st edition was destined to make history, but it turned its gaze to champion an apparently outdated immobilism, although firmly rooted in the worn-out structure of an Academy that is as predictable as it is indecipherable. It was a clumsy campaign to try to change this.
There were five milestones that showed the Academy's willingness to change - or so it wanted to show. However, the start of the communication campaign was undoubtedly a failure. A retroplanning doomed to fail since the first decision making. In the middle of summer, on 8 August, the Academy announced the creation of a new category to join the bloated but necessary awards grid, the award for Best Popular Film, an aberration designed to connect more to an audience that had plummeted over the past five years. Precisely the same public that would have been given the limelight, was the one that did not approve of a decision that was more appropriate to the MTV Awards, and on 6 September the organisation rectified the situation. First major communication and first rectification. August and September on the public's lips several months before the Gala. Action and reaction, a hectic summer audience.
The second milestone was the appointment of comedian Kevin Hart as presenter. Two days later, on 7 December, a homophobic joke published on Twitter in 2015 ended his status as presenter, leaving the Academy significantly damaged. Weeks of rumours and threats of rectification by the comedian ended up delaying a Gala that finally decided on a format without a presenter.
The third milestone was to announce that, of the five nominees for Best Song, only two would be represented ('...).Shallow', by A star is born y All the stars', from Black Panther), which sparked another controversy that he had to solve by announcing, just a week later, that they would finally all be performed on stage. Despite the rectification, logistical problems prevented Kendrick Lamar and SZA from performing 'The SZA'.All the Stars.
The fourth milestone affected the actors and actresses, by decoupling the casting awards from the stars who had been honoured the previous year. In the light of history, it was unfair to deprive Gary Oldman, Allison Janney, Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell of presenting the awards they themselves had won a year earlier. Once again, rectification, although this one was delayed until 20 February.
The fifth and most absurd was the idea that, with the intention of lightening the Gala, four categories would not be televised: photography, make-up and hairdressing, editing and short fiction. Coldly analysing this option, regardless of which of the four categories were chosen, the claims of various heavyweights willing to make headlines by criticising the decision would have served to overturn this choice. However, it was even better because the four categories were of such significance that they inspired Cuarón, winner of the Oscar for Best Director, to brilliantly criticise the organisation: "In the history of cinema, there are masterpieces without sound, without colour, without history, without actors or without music. There is not a single film that has existed without photography and editing. Eight days before the ceremony, the Academy once again rectified for the fifth time under pressure from figures such as Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino, among others.
Thus, with five milestones of communication and rectification, the Gala almost seemed the least of it. In fact, there is no entertaining chronicle of a doomed ceremony, per seeternally boring. However, the thrill of each statuette is going in crescendo and, as every year, the musical numbers serve the cause... but it is never enough. Truly remarkable was the performance of ShallowThe winning song of the night featured a remarkable Bradley Cooper as a prelude to one of the biggest stars of the night: Lady Gaga. Paradoxically, she perfectly embodied the Oscar spirit: excitement and euphoria despite the certainty.
And, as a certainty, love, love for the classic, for the simple, for a pleasant, emotional and subtle Christmas homecoming, love for America, love for Green Book, and love for the world.. Peter Farelly, director of the award-winning play, said: "it's about loving each other despite our differences and discovering the truth about who we are... because we are the same people". And the Academy is still made up of precisely the same people, it is still stuck in stasis and, as long as that is the case, it is still the same people, will deprive everyone of seeing, for the umpteenth consecutive year, the best film of the year. In this case, by far, Roma.
The result was simplicity, crushing, demolishing and vacuous. A simplicity that lasted just over three hours, compared to four hours last year, one of the editions with the smallest audience in recent history. Audience figures? Moderate improvement (29.6 million compared to last year's 26.5 million).The price? The reputational erosion after five rectifications and after denying the big prize to Rome's incontestability. Farelly, Green Book and immobility; supporting actor, original screenplay and film, in short, controversial posterity.
Timeline of the Oscars' campaign to win back audiences
8 August - Announcement of the creation of the Best Popular Film.
6 September - The Academy confirms not to go ahead with the new category.
5 December - The Academy announces Kevin Hart as the new host of the Oscars.
7 December - Kevin Hart resigns from hosting the Gala over homophobic tweets he posted in 2015.
24 January - The Academy announces that only two of the five Best Song nominees will be performed at the ceremony.
31 January - The Academy announces that all songs nominated for Best Song will be represented at the Gala.
5 February - The Academy is breaking with the tradition of giving the honour of handing out the four supporting actor awards to the actors and actresses who won the previous year's awards. Allison Janney: "It breaks my heart".
11 February - The Academy announces that, in order to reduce the overall length of the Gala, the categories of photography, make-up and hairdressing, editing and short fiction film will be awarded during the advertising.
16 February - The Academy rectifies and confirms, after receiving a collective communiqué (signed by Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Robert De Niro, among others), that the four categories will finally be broadcast.
20 February - The Academy rectifies and confirms that the four actors and actresses awarded last year will present the awards for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Act and Best Supporting Actress.
24 February - Green Book' wins the Best Picture statuette.
Álvaro Ramos Izquierdo
Senior communications consultant, passionate about the eminently artistic nature of cinema and yet an Oscar mythomaniac.