Are the Academy Awards Still Relevant?

Another Oscar show has come and gone. Did anyone notice? There's seems to have been less buzz this year than previous ones, and it's clear that our attention was focused elsewhere - indeed, this year's edition had the third-lowest ratings ever. Yet it was perhaps one of the most successful shows, in my opinion; forget the fact that Slumdog Millionaire felt like a shoo-in based on buzz alone - Hugh Jackman was a stellar host (and how many past hosts can say they could really sing and dance?), the presentations stylish, the mood jovial, the musical numbers Broadway-fun and it almost ran on time. Sign of the times, perhaps?

Or perhaps most people were just not interested in seeing otherwise barely-mainstream fare battling out - had most viewers even seen the nominated pictures? If The Dark Knight had been in nomination, for example, would more people have tuned in to root for the critically acclaimed box-office champ?

And for that matter, why wasn't The Dark Knight nominated for best picture? Some will say it wasn't Best Picture material (wrong!), others that it wasn't the type of movies that gets nominated (Lord of the Rings did, however), or that the nomination system is so bizarre and Byzantine-ly complex that the right movies get lost in the shuffle (indeed, there's been a lot of controversy of late on how movies do get nominated). A real shame. At least Hugh Ledger got his statue, posthumously, though one wonders if there would have been more competition if he had been still alive... Still, well deserved for an unnerving, unrecognizable performance.

Of course, the Oscar for Best Picture has always had a bumpy track record ever since How Green Was My Valley trumped Citizen Kane, the movie that has since been on every Best Of list since 1942. Not that the winning films were bad, but better ones sometimes didn't get their due. And of course, there is no way that the Academy ever watched every single film that came out that year and found just the perfect one.

Are the Oscars irrelevant? Maybe they always were. But we can't resist an awards show as extravagant and glitzy as this one, or the idea that there is one, unique best picture of the year. Until then, we'll still be watching.