The Oscar awards are approaching soon and students are eagerly awaiting, especially one Bucks student Michael W. Doane who is a film major and has input on of the leading productions that made The Oscars this year.
The Oscar awards is an extremely prestigious ceremony that airs every year awarding the finest movies and productions that year. According to Oscars.org, the first academy awards were held May 16th 1929 as a private dinner. This private dinner subsequently took place at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, which consisted of 270 people.
The price of admission into the prestigious event was $5, which translated to $70, in today’s currency. Instead of the ceremony being hours long it was roughly 15 minutes when it originally started.
According to a popular urban legend and hollywoodreporter.com, it is revealed that before The Oscars got its title, it was originally called “The Academy Awards”. However, librarian Margaret Herrick though The Academy Award trophies looked like her uncle Oscar, and ever since then the staff referred to the award as an Oscar.
Many of the films that came out were diverse and different, but only the best make it into The Oscars. Doane has a lot to say about The Oscars coming up this year.
Doane is a 19-year-old student that attends Bucks as a cinema film major, residing in Levittown. Movies and film became his passion when he was in high school and took a class that changed his passion in life forever, which was video production. This made Doane an avid movie watcher and also take pride of the different attributes movies have.
The Oscars has many movies that have nominations but a few of the big ones have been “La La Land”, “Manchester by the Sea”, and “Arrival”. Out of all of them Doane has only seen “La La Land”; however, he has heard of the other two films.
Out of all of the films he feels that “La La Land” should have the most award nominations. “La La Land” has 14 nominations, which is exactly how many the “Titanic and “All About Eve” had. Doane feels that “La La Land” was an ideal pick for most nominations due to the fact that the production value was great and it showed a little bit of nostalgia towards classic Hollywood. Doane adds in, “It pretty much pats Hollywood on the back, by showing the great sides and ideas within the industry.”
Doane feels that “La La Land” should win the most awards because he feels that some movies have a great plot, great directors or great actors, but none are strong in all categories. Doane feels that “La La Land” consistently delivers in several categories which is why he feels it got the most nominations in the first place.
A movie that Doane expressed his passion for is the movie “Arrival”, which is also nominated for many awards as well in eight categories. He feels that “Arrival” takes on the sci-fi genre and breaks the stereotypes of the typical science fiction movie. Instead, he mentions how the movie is about aliens but the typical characteristics of an alien movie does not occur.
Instead of “Arrival” depicting violence and action, it depicts humanity, language, and working together. It takes a positive spin on an alien movie, showing all of us that we are all living creatures that just want the same things and that we may not all be so different after all.
The Oscars is a program that Michael Doane looks forward to every year. He says, “It is a great way to reward hard work and give people recognition. Not just the actors but also the people behind the scene that make the movie happen. It is like a movie appreciation day.”
Doane gets a large thrill out of The Oscars for the mere fact that it is friendly competition and a great way to see who deserves what awards, and who you feel should win.
For anyone that has little interest in the awards show, he says, “Honestly, it’s okay if you don’t like The Oscars but they are exclusive and you get recognized and it’s great to see people you would not normally see in a room together.”
As a cinema film major, Michael Doane is driven by the pure fact that he enjoys filming and what he does with it. He feels it is a great way to tell a story through a different medium other than print.
The 89th annual Oscar awards air Feb. 26th 2017 at 8:30pm. The event is hosted by late night talk show host, Jimmy Kimmel, and will be awarding 24 categories from the Dolby Theater in the Hollywood and Highland Center.