Despite a glittering ceremony performed as best as possible under the recovering state of the industry, the Oscars has come under heavy fire as irrelevant to the true state of the movie industry. Today BLAKE & WANG P.A Entertainment Attorney dives a little deeper into these accusations, and whether they hold lessons for the industry to learn.
It certainly can’t be disputed that the nominees for this year lacked wide audience appeal. Of course, one can’t blame the industry entirely for that. With the exhibition industry shuttered for most of the eligible period, it was a harder year to gain audience traction than we’ve seen before. We’re existing in a period with bulging pipelines on blockbuster and indie content alike- but still a lot of hesitance around theater openings and festival dates. Distribution is definitely in a spotty place next to production. And no one, in the face of industry-wide mass restructuring, seems to know what to pitch where for the 2022 season.
We’ve seen some action on the issue. Disney, which spent most of 2020 on major reconstructions, has explicitly clarified its roadmap strictly to help filmmakers “make the right show for the right platforms for the right audience.” Yet we couldn’t blame filmmakers (and their agents) if they can’t fathom where ‘the right audience’ lies in these convoluted corporate structures. Studios now resemble Silicon Valley more than Hollywood hills. This has also been a year where we’ve seen programming greats exit in droves from their long-held roles. Business and content are being split, which could well prove a double-edged sword in time, and models are focusing on ‘IP’ pieces that can be mined again and again as spin-offs, prequels, and sequels.
What does this mean for passion projects and art pieces? There was a time when these delicately thematic, narrow-audience pieces could easily get greenlit for mainstream release by big-name studios. Increasingly, we see a split where studios demand marketability and audience appeal, but the Oscars rewards artiness. It’s hard not to ask, “What’s the point?”
Is this a sign that the institution is creaking under the weight of its own irrelevancy? It’s tough to tell, but 2022 will certainly prove a make-or-break experience for the iconic ceremony. BLAKE & WANG P.A, as always, will be there to keep you in the loop.
Film and Television 