How the Oscars Made Everyone Hate Them

A short take

In 1978, Paddy Chayefsky took to the stage at the Oscars and condemned the use of the ceremony as a political platform. What made him so mad? Vanessa Redgrave, wherein she called out the “Zionist hoodlums” who were trying to have her documentary The Palestinian silenced and destroyed:

The brilliant screenwriter of Network did not hold back:

48 million people watched that episode. This year, the Oscars will be lucky to get 20 million. What might help is that a popular movie is in play: Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which made waves for breaking the record for nominations (16) and for having two of the stars, Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, called the N-Word at the BAFTAs by a poor man who suffered from Tourette's Syndrome.

No writer today could ever come up with satire that good. The very people who try their hardest not to offend end up offending, and yet, it’s no one’s fault. Either way, it put Sinners in the spotlight, leading to a surprise win at the SAG Awards. Now, an Oscar race that seemed locked and loaded feels surprising.

Nothing gets better clicks and views than hating on the Oscars. It’s an annual ritual by now, as the wealthy and privileged parade about in their finery, an entire ecosystem is dedicated to dunking on them. It seems to be almost a sadistic pleasure by now. The more embarrassing the Oscars are, the better to dig in with a knife and fork.

Most people who watch on Sunday night will be hate-watching. Either because they can’t stand the movies on offer, or they can’t stand the celebrities who have become too political of late to tolerate. It’s a thousand Vanessa Redgraves and no Paddy Chayefskys.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the ratings began to dip after 2016, when Hollywood took a side against half the country after Trump won. Their allegiance to Barack Obama mandated loyalty, which is one of Hollywood’s biggest problems of late: they’re married to the Democratic Party.

And that’s all before they went woke and went broke. The Oscars, like every award show, were hit hard and ended up implementing a DEI mandate in 2024, which is why all movies and television shows look like THAT, and why so many are so unwatchable. They have lost their connection to real life, so how can they reflect it back to us?

Bill Maher laments the loss of Citizen Kane to How Green Was My Valley, but say what you will about that movie, it was top five at the box office in 1941.

It was directed by the great John Ford, who would ultimately win four Oscars and was said to have been present on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Can you imagine any director in Hollywood with that kind of cred?

That year was the inspiration for the website I started back in 1999 with a baby on my hip, a 1200-baud modem, and a really good idea. I’d cover the Oscars from start to finish to find out why Citizen Kane didn’t win and How Green Was My Valley did.

It’s not that complicated, really. John Ford was an insider, and he made a crowd-pleaser. Orson Welles was an outsider and became the target of William Randolph Hearst, who smeared his name and tried to destroy his career.

It might not have won anyway because what mattered back then was money. If money mattered now, the Oscars would instantly be better. Sinners should be winning for that reason alone. It won’t, but it should. When the box office mattered, the public had to matter.

The predicted winner this year is a real doozy. One Battle After Another, which aims to satirize the Left and the Right, but comes away making the point that the revolutionaries aren’t skilled enough to take on the fascists and the Gestapo running this country.

If One Battle After Another wins, it will be the first time a notable flop won Best Picture. It was made for around $170 million and only grossed $70 million domestically, and, like all the films up for Best Picture except Sinners, it made more money overseas.

1. Sinners $280 domestic/$369 worldwide

2. F1 $189 domestic/$639 worldwide

3. Marty Supreme $95 domestic / $179 worldwide (so far)

4. One Battle After Another $72 domestic/$209 worldwide

5. Hamnet $23 domestic / $97 worldwide (so far)

6. Bugonia $17 domestic / $41 worldwide

7. Sentimental Value $5 million domestic / $22 worldwide

8. The Secret Agent – $4 million domestic / $18 worldwide

9. Frankenstein Netflix-N/A

10. Train Dreams Netflix-N/A

That shows how little the Oscars and Hollywood really care about American audiences, and that’s not likely to change any time soon.

Hollywood and the Oscars only make sense if they care about the public. They only have meaning in our culture and in our lives if we can share stories as one people. That is what made Hollywood so great back then and why people tuned in to the Oscars.

They might always have paraded around like they’re better than the rest of us, but at least they still made movies for us. It was a trade-off. You entertain us, and we’ll reward you with admiration, as long as we get something out of it.

What do we get out of it now? The movies are mostly terrible. The Academy Best Picture lineup had no choice but to include two films that are also in the International Feature category because they couldn’t fill up ten slots with great American studio films. The celebrities have become irritating and unlikable. Why should anyone waste their time caring about any of it?

All that remains is that it’s fun to hate on them. It’s fun to trash them, mock them, and root for their failure. Most people don’t even watch the show. They just wait for their favorite podcasters to clip the worst moments and then point and laugh.

In a way, they’re doing society a favor by giving them the chance to feel better by unloading on the rich, the famous, and the sanctimonious. Taking themselves seriously was the worst mistake they ever made. At least Jimmy Kimmel isn’t hosting.