Jonathan Ross stopped voting at BAFTA as he felt films were “being rewarded for the wrong reason”
Jonathan Ross has criticised some prestigious award ceremonies, saying that films aren’t rewarded that should be.
The comedian is set to host the ITV Oscars coverage in March, but speaking with his daughter, Honey on their podcast, Reel Talk With Honey & Jonathan Ross, he shared his criticisms of this award season.
There has been some backlash following the release of the 2024 Oscar nominations, with many critically acclaimed films, directors and actors missing out on recognition.
Ross, who used to be a BAFTA voter, has stopped voting as he felt award shows are mainly focused on films “being rewarded for the wrong reason”.
He said: “I’ve been preparing for it by trying to overcome my kind of instinctive dislike for award shows. I’ve come to the conclusion after many years, and you know I used to vote on BAFTA… I’ve stopped [voting] because I was tired of seeing movies again and again which I thought were being rewarded for the wrong reason.”
He also shared that he didn’t believe the movies honoured at award ceremonies were necessarily representative of those popular with the public. He said: “They weren’t popular with audiences and I didn’t think many of them necessarily were even satisfactory, personally, and I know that’s a subjective opinion.”
One example of a movie which is seen to have been snubbed is Barbie, which missed out on Oscar nominations for Best Director for Greta Gerwig and Best Actress for Margot Robbie. The movie, which came out in July last year, made more than $1.4billion in the box office, and received largely positive reviews.
Ross continued to criticise both the Oscars and the BAFTAS, saying: “Movies get rewarded because people want to seem like they like intelligent movies or meaningful movies, and a lot or people do and there’s absolutely a place for them, but I often think they are not a reflection of what’s popular and necessarily good.”
However, Ross is still set to present the Oscars coverage in March, and admitted that he does “kind of love the Oscars”. He added: “It’s weird, I have a kind of love/hate relationship with it so I intend to be honest on the night.”
In other news, Ryan Gosling‘s wife Eva Mendes has hit back at criticism surrounding his Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Ken in Barbie.
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Alex Berry
NME
