Oscar party fun with a side of chaos

Last week we had the annual film awards known as the Oscars, an excuse for lots of after party fun and for stars to show off their finest designer outfits. Surprisingly, Forbes reports that the TV audience fell by 4% to 32.9 million but maybe new ways of sharing the event mean that the viewing figures are no longer representative of total participation. Between 5:30 pm and 1:00 am, Twitter reported that there were over 14.7 million Tweets about the #Oscars. Around 1.5 million of these portrayed some sort of emotion, as measured by emotion analytics company Canvs. These reactions were generally positive: 34.7% communicated love, 9.2% crazy, 8.3% congrats, 7.3%. Only 3.6% and 3.2 % of the analyzed emotional reactions expressed hate or dislike, respectively. In keeping with past years the organizers wanted to keep the event light hearted so the host was Jimmy Kimmel. Although Variety reports that generally he was reviewed as positive, there was some social media criticism that his comedy was too often aimed at foreigners or people of color. Then I guess you want a host that causes some controversy otherwise it might get boring. Usually the media focus is on the red carpet outside and the designer gowns. The female nominees told People magazine what they would really like to wear to the awards in this article “Sweatpants and Onesies”. English actress Naomie Harris told them ““When you’re seeing a great show, you want to be in a onesie, in a comfortable chair with some popcorn.” But this year it wasn’t the fashion, the host or the party fun that will be remembered.

Hollywood legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway presented the award for Best Movie (or Motion Picture so as not be confused with those static pictures). Beatty read the winner as La La Land – no surprise it was most people’s favorite, and so the La La Land team came up to accept the honor. As the acceptance speeches started it became clear all was not well. Two embarrassed accountants from Price Waterhouse, which oversees the voting, rushed onto the stage and then La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz took the mic. “Guys, I’m sorry,” he began. “There’s been a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture.” Most of the audience thought that this was a Kimmel inspired gag but it turns out that behind the scenes the organisation was in chaos. Still not enough to spoil the after party fun except for the guys from Price Waterhouse who won’t be invited to help again.