Headline, July28, 2013

'''THE OSCARS : 

FACTS AND FICTION'''

The Academy Awards are voted for by 5,783 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science -AMPAS- , but the list of who those people are is not entirely public. And the process is obviously open for criticism.

The Academy is made up fifteen branches, including directors, those who produce visual effects, sound, and so on, but it also invites people from fields including ''public relations'', ''executives'' and ''producers''.

The biggest group with around 1,200 members, is comprised of actors. Membership is by invitation only, requiring sponsorship by two existing members and approval from the board. Once accepted, you are in for life, which has lead to the idea that the club is made of doddering old men, although the average age is actually late fifties.

The Academy is keen to dispel the notion that is secretive.''It struck us a couple of years ago that that the people had the impression the Academy was a nameless and faceless organisation,'' said its President. ''We wanted to make sure people understand it is anything but that. The Academy functions with membership participating from every single branch.''

To this end, AMPAS now announces the identity of its new members. Recent recruits have included Keira Knightley, Anne Hathaway, Seth Rogen, Ellen Page and Dakota Fanning  -the latter being admitted in 2006 at the age of twelve, making her too young to legally watch many of the films.

Not that the majority of the films are ever watched in the first place.A year ago there were 265 features eligible and it's hard to believe that the judges watch all of them before returning their votes. Henry Fonda and James Garner both admitted that their wives filled out their ballots. Of course many of these films are rightly never going to be considered  -form Alvin and the Chipmunks; chipwrecked down to the dire Zookeeper -which is one of the reasons why studios release their ''Oscar Bait'' just before the voting takes place, to ensure that it is still fresh in their minds.

Studio influence, it should be noted, is not something that the Academy is overly concerned about. There are studio heads on the voting panel  -including Rupert Murdoch -Fox Studios- as well as an entire section of public relations people. Among the PR execs are Mary Murphy Conlin, former head of marketing at Pixar; Marc Meinstock, VP of marketing at Sony Pictures; and Stephanie Kluft, VP of global publicity at The Walt Disney Studios.

So, in short, the Oscars are voted for by PRs, heads of studios and by people and almost certainly won't have seen enough of the films to make an informed decision and therefore has their vote on studio campaigns and what a group of around seventy foreign journalists are saying; it should be noted, that has been regularly accused of accepting bribes including free holidays, gifts and hospitality from the film studios in return for giving awards.

With respectful dedication to the Students and Professors of Austria. See you all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless: Designing Your Own World.

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless