I was done with the Oscars in 1978. I have a VERY long memory.
The catalyst: Star Wars was up against Annie Hall. As usual, they would show a scene from each of the contenders. For star wars it was an amazing battle scene, like nothing ever seen before in cinema. For Annie Hall it was a ridiculous “Lobster in the Kitchen” scene.
It was a no brainer, except it wasn’t. Annie Hall won.
It was that day that I realized the award was political. I never watched them again.
Even before that it was starting to go political. The "best picture" of 1967 was In the Heat of the Night. While it is a good movie, I don't think it quite rises to the level of "best picture". The awards that year (1968) were postponed for several days following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. I've always thought it seemed the fix was in when Hollywood postpones the show because of the King assassination, and then a good, but not great (IMO) movie about black/white relations in the south wins 5 Oscars. I think a last minute "re-vote" occurred that year.
I was never a Star Wars fan, I thought the storyline was a bit on the immature side. But young kids were the target demographic, not a 20-year-old (when the movie came out). Doesn’t make it a bad movie, you just have to understand who the audience is intended to be. The question really is; was it a good movie for the target audience? The answer is yes, very much so. The photography and special effects were outstanding for the time.
Annie Hall sucked, still sucks, and was never a good movie because the storyline was bad. Dreary in fact. I was not the target audience, and cannot relate to it.
You are spot on! Star Wars( the most popular movie in the WORLD in 1977) ignored for weirdo Woody ALlen’s ‘Annie Hall’ perfectly demonstrated that the PUBLIC didn’t matter. What the audience wanted and loved didn’t matter and it hasn’t since! You have to be maliciously vindictive to ignore a movie phenomenon in favor of quirky, sleazy Annie Hall.Star Wars in 77 didn’t just deserve Movie of the Year-it deserved Movie of the Century!