Downton Abbey beat Doctor Who and Sherlock to the prize of Best Drama at the National Television Awards this week and the odds are that you know that. Skyfall was snubbed at this year\u2019s Baftas and that made the news too. Lincoln looks a shoo-in for a Best Picture Oscar even though Les Mis probably deserves it.<\/p>\n
But name last year\u2019s NTA drama winner. Or Bafta. Or Oscar. <\/p>\n
I used to know this stuff. I worked for Radio Times, I worked for BBC News Online\u2019s entertainment section, I had this stuff at my fingertips and it was important. Today I can\u2019t tell you without cheating \u2013 and I don\u2019t only mean searching Google for last year\u2019s winners. I just had to search for this year\u2019s nominees too. <\/p>\n
In 2010 or 2011, I cut a short promo video for Radio Times that had Dermot O\u2019Leary calling for us all to vote in the NTA Awards. The script was funny and clever, he delivered it very well but I knew I wouldn\u2019t vote. I studied that video almost frame by frame: it was the first time I\u2019d replaced green screen with a new background and the studio\u2019s green backdrop was crinkly, sometimes a shard of green poked through the video. So even now I can bring to mind every gesticulation, every beaming smile, every joke of that video. But I still wasn\u2019t persuaded to even watch that year\u2019s NTA. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve stopped watching the Baftas. Haven\u2019t seen the Oscars in a century. For a while I did regularly take part in a twitter fashion critique where a huge number of people and this one straight man discussed the Oscar frocks in the red-carpet coverage. But I\u2019d switch off after that, only partly driven away by how the banality of the red-carpet presenters make you ashamed for your species. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s not as if presenters of the main awards shows are all that much better, except when they are: I would\u2019ve stayed up for the Golden Globes this year if I\u2019d realised how great Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were going to be<\/a>.<\/p>\n But this is the good stuff you can check out on YouTube the day after. Someone else does the watching of the show and someone else does the compiling of the good bits. Everyone else, absolutely everyone else lists the winners and talks about what a significant and great result it is or isn\u2019t for Britain, about how it does or doesn\u2019t send a signal about what will do well at the Oscars. <\/p>\n I\u2019m not exactly on my own in awards disinterest: ratings for TV coverage is trending lower each year. But you wouldn\u2019t know that from the number and length of news reports so I feel as if I stand alone. <\/p>\n I can\u2019t help that. Maybe it\u2019s because the voting is always the same. I wasn\u2019t very keen on Skyfall but you knew its Oscar buzz was nonsense: no Bond film will ever win Best Picture. I am very keen on Safety Not Guaranteed but even as it moved me and I\u2019d surely call it tremendous, it didn\u2019t even occur to me that it would be in with a chance at a Best Picture Oscar. It wasn\u2019t. <\/p>\n Maybe it\u2019s because the voting can never be anything else. Even among the type of films that tend to get nominated, the winners feel the same each time. Our culture does laud actors but an acting performance stands on the shoulders of the script, the direction and the whole production. So comparing Denzel Washington with Bradley Cooper (I cheated and looked it up) is as much comparing their films, Flight and Silver Linings Playbook. <\/p>\n You do suspect that the Academy and maybe all awards organisers have yet to twig that. Otherwise you\u2019d never get the ridiculous situation where a film wins Best Picture but the script isn\u2019t even nominated. Actors make it all up, plainly, and for me that undermines the whole concept of awards being a genuine celebration of film and TV. <\/p>\n You can\u2019t compare two actors beyond whether you enjoyed one film more than another. Maybe if you had two actors playing the same role in two otherwise identical films you could actually measure and rank acting skill. We might be able to compare Michael J Fox with Eric Stoltz if the latter\u2019s Back to the Future performance were released. But otherwise, it doesn\u2019t happen because it won\u2019t happen because it can\u2019t happen. <\/p>\n Equally, you can\u2019t really compare Citizen Kane with The Maltese Falcon but the Academy tried to in 1941. (I relished them both but the Academy preferred How Green Was My Valley. Thank you, Wikipedia.) <\/p>\n So when a ceremony declares this film or that actor to be the best, the actual best, the really best of the whole year, it simply is not true. It simply can\u2019t ever be actually true. You can\u2019t measure so you can\u2019t rank so there can\u2019t be a winner. Best Picture, Best Actor and the rest are only We Really Liked This. You\u2019re thinking now about voting bias and favouritism and giving a director an award for this film because he didn\u2019t get one when he or she should have. You\u2019re wrong: it\u2019s never a she. <\/p>\n Even if voting was always pure, the kicker for me is that winning an Oscar has no bearing on whether I\u2019ll enjoy the film. It used to have a bearing on whether I\u2019d go see a film but I\u2019m afraid now I doubt I\u2019ll even remember to watch a movie called Silver Linings Playbook regardless of how it fares. <\/p>\n No award makes me see a film. Actually, no actor makes me see one either: I think Jodie Foster is a fascinating talent \u2013 listen to her on the commentary track for Contact where she is just so interesting \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t guarantee I\u2019ll go see her every movie. Writers might do it to me: I will eventually check out all Aaron Sorkin movies and for a long time I used to go see see every Woody Allen one. <\/p>\n But I\u2019m persuaded more by the story than who\u2019s in it. Until there\u2019s an Oscar for Best Interesting Story or Supporting Idea for a Film, awards won\u2019t mean a thing to me anymore. Best Trailer, that\u2019d be a good one: trailer-making is an enormous and fascinating skill but of course it never gets any time in the spotlight. <\/p>\n Whereas it\u2019s all spotlight for the Oscar winners even though there is truly only a finite amount of genuine news you can get from one film being picked for an Oscar out of nine nominees. <\/p>\n But you wouldn\u2019t know that from how much news coverage the winner will get. <\/p>\n Until next year when it\u2019s forgotten by the news and by you. Join me ahead of the curve: get in early and forget them before you ever knew them. Ignore what wins and what’s nominated and instead ask your friends what\u2019s good instead. Go see Safety Not Guaranteed<\/a>, would you? Got any recommendations for me?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Downton Abbey beat Doctor Who and Sherlock to the prize of Best Drama at the National Television Awards this week … Continue reading