The Oscars

[mpare]

Lady Gaga and The Sound of Music!!!! The woman can sing.

[mpare]

Re: The Oscars

That David Oyelowo was not nominated for his performance as Martin Luther King, Jr. should be an embarrassment to the Academy.

[Oakbridge]

Re: The Oscars

That David Oyelowo was not nominated for his performance as Martin Luther King, Jr. should be an embarrassment to the Academy.

Nice when the host makes a crack at the Academy's expense.

[spas1]

Re: The Oscars

That David Oyelowo was not nominated for his performance as Martin Luther King, Jr. should be an embarrassment to the Academy.

I completely agree! I have never heard of 90% of the films nominated - when did they even come out? How are these films and rolls even selected? The lady Gaga performance was definitely the best part of the entire show.

[Weirfan]

Re: The Oscars

I completely agree! I have never heard of 90% of the films nominated - when did they even come out? How are these films and rolls even selected? .

You are probably correct with the 90% figure as there are many, many films that get submitted , many deemed eligible, only a select few become finalists. Last year 323 films were deemed nominated and eligible for voting. That's a heckuva lot of movies for people to have to watch.

Producers nominate their own films


THE FORMULA FOR GETTING NOMINATED

The Academy has strict rules that determine what people or films can be nominated. In order to submit a film for nomination, a movie's producer or distributor must sign and submit an “Official Screen Credits” by December 2. That's not just a full list of credits. You need proof that the film meets certain criteria: In order to be eligible, the film must be over 40 minutes in length; must be publicly screened for paid admission in Los Angeles County (with the name of a particular theater where it screened included); and must screen for a qualifying run of at least seven straight days. In addition, the film cannot have its premiere outside of a theatrical run—screening a film for the first time on television or the Internet, for example, renders the film ineligible.

Then, the ballots are sent out. According to Entertainment Weekly, "Voters are asked to list up to five names, ranked in order of preference. The Academy instructs voters to 'follow their hearts' because the voting process doesn’t penalize for picking eccentric choices ... Also, listing the same person or film twice doesn’t help their cause—in fact, it actually diminishes the chance that the voter’s ballot will be counted at all."

Once members send back their ballots, PricewaterhouseCoopers begins the process of crunching the numbers. Specifically, they're looking for the magic number, the amount of votes in each category that automatically turns a potential nominee into an official nominee. To determine the magic number, PwC takes the total number of ballots received for a particular category and divides it by the total possible nominees plus one. An easy example is to take 600 potential ballots for the Best Actor category, divide that by 6 (5 possible nominees plus 1), thus making the magic number for the category 100 ballots to become an official nominee.

The counting—which is still done by hand—starts based on a voter’s first choice selection until someone reaches the magic number. Say Leonardo DiCaprio for his performance in The Wolf of Wall Street reaches the magic number first—the ballots that named him as a first choice are then all set aside, and there are now four spots left for the Best Actor category. The actor with the fewest first-place votes is automatically knocked out, and those ballots are redistributed based on the voters' second place choices (though the actors still in the running retain their calculated votes from the first round). The counting continues, and actors or different categories rack up redistributed votes until all five spots are filled. According to Entertainment Weekly, "if a ballot runs out of selections, that ballot is voided and is no longer in play, which is why it’s important for voters to list five different nominees." (The magic number drops as ballots are voided, by the way.) The process is ballooned for the Best Picture category, which can have up to 10 nominees and no less than 5.


A few other facts,
there are 6028 voting members of the academy who all vote on every category once the nominees are determined from above process. Voting members can abstain from voting on categories on which they don't fully understand.

It takes PWC over 1700 man hours to tabulate the nominees and once voting us completed 3 days to tabulate the winners

[Smittyman]

Re: The Oscars

Completely agree about Lady Gaga's performance. Lost in all of the weird costumes, theatrical performances, and hype is that fact that the woman can really sing. The same can be said about the late Amy Winehouse as well; Back to Black was a tremendous album but her talent was often overlooked due to the alcohol and lifestyle issues.

Nice to see long time character actor JK Simmons, better known to most of the world as the Farmers Insurance guy, win an Oscar. I hadn't heard of Whiplash before this week and I'm now looking forward to seeing it.

[spas1]

Re: The Oscars

Thanks - Great Explanation!

You are probably correct with the 90% figure as there are many, many films that get submitted , many deemed eligible, only a select few become finalists. Last year 323 films were deemed nominated and eligible for voting. That's a heckuva lot of movies for people to have to watch.

Producers nominate their own films


THE FORMULA FOR GETTING NOMINATED

The Academy has strict rules that determine what people or films can be nominated. In order to submit a film for nomination, a movie's producer or distributor must sign and submit an “Official Screen Credits” by December 2. That's not just a full list of credits. You need proof that the film meets certain criteria: In order to be eligible, the film must be over 40 minutes in length; must be publicly screened for paid admission in Los Angeles County (with the name of a particular theater where it screened included); and must screen for a qualifying run of at least seven straight days. In addition, the film cannot have its premiere outside of a theatrical run—screening a film for the first time on television or the Internet, for example, renders the film ineligible.

Then, the ballots are sent out. According to Entertainment Weekly, "Voters are asked to list up to five names, ranked in order of preference. The Academy instructs voters to 'follow their hearts' because the voting process doesn’t penalize for picking eccentric choices ... Also, listing the same person or film twice doesn’t help their cause—in fact, it actually diminishes the chance that the voter’s ballot will be counted at all."

Once members send back their ballots, PricewaterhouseCoopers begins the process of crunching the numbers. Specifically, they're looking for the magic number, the amount of votes in each category that automatically turns a potential nominee into an official nominee. To determine the magic number, PwC takes the total number of ballots received for a particular category and divides it by the total possible nominees plus one. An easy example is to take 600 potential ballots for the Best Actor category, divide that by 6 (5 possible nominees plus 1), thus making the magic number for the category 100 ballots to become an official nominee.

The counting—which is still done by hand—starts based on a voter’s first choice selection until someone reaches the magic number. Say Leonardo DiCaprio for his performance in The Wolf of Wall Street reaches the magic number first—the ballots that named him as a first choice are then all set aside, and there are now four spots left for the Best Actor category. The actor with the fewest first-place votes is automatically knocked out, and those ballots are redistributed based on the voters' second place choices (though the actors still in the running retain their calculated votes from the first round). The counting continues, and actors or different categories rack up redistributed votes until all five spots are filled. According to Entertainment Weekly, "if a ballot runs out of selections, that ballot is voided and is no longer in play, which is why it’s important for voters to list five different nominees." (The magic number drops as ballots are voided, by the way.) The process is ballooned for the Best Picture category, which can have up to 10 nominees and no less than 5.


A few other facts,
there are 6028 voting members of the academy who all vote on every category once the nominees are determined from above process. Voting members can abstain from voting on categories on which they don't fully understand.

It takes PWC over 1700 man hours to tabulate the nominees and once voting us completed 3 days to tabulate the winners

[hackerhare]

Re: The Oscars

The performance of "Glory" by John Legend and Common is absolutely emotionally charged.

[hemants]

Re: The Oscars

Did Lady Gaga get a nosejob?

[jburns]

Re: The Oscars

Gaga and Glory were both amazing. Happy to see Birdman win as I thought it was a great film and shot really well. Wanted to see Keaton win best actor but the winner was deserving with his portrayal of Hawkins.

[mpare]

Re: The Oscars

Agreed.

The performance of "Glory" by John Legend and Common is absolutely emotionally charged.

[sauerkraut]

Re: The Oscars

She's engaged to the hottie (*cough*...my wife's description) on Chicago Fire. Wonder how long that will last?

[Playthru]

Re: The Oscars

The awards in general were in keeping with my personal choices. I knew that Birdman might win because it was an "actors movie" - but I preferred Theory of Everything. One of the few years I had actually seen most of the movies nominated - certainly make watching the awards more interesting.

[Under3]

Re: The Oscars

Gaga and Glory were both amazing. Happy to see Birdman win as I thought it was a great film and shot really well. Wanted to see Keaton win best actor but the winner was deserving with his portrayal of Hawkins.

Seems that there is a bias of late for those impersonating a character (Ray Charles, Kings Speech, Abraham Lincoln, Harvey Milk, Idi Amin, Capote....).

On the women's side Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II, June Cash, Erin Brockovich, Aileen Wuornos & Million Dollar Baby.

Portraying a fictional character doesn't win awards......

[crunch27]

Re: The Oscars

I am not a Lady Gaga fan, but she was amazing.

Did you see the interview with Melanie Griffith and her daughter, Dakota Johnson on the red carpet? Melanie definitely didn't want to see her daughter's movie.