E D I T O R I A L

Award-mania

Friday, March 22, 2002 — "And the award goes to . . . "

Who would imagine that five simple words could inspire such anxiety, bitterness, outcry, pain, and tears? Yet year after year, the Academy Awards (scheduled to be broadcast Sunday, March 24), the Hong Kong Film Awards (scheduled to be given next month), and innumerable other awards provoke heated discussions and outraged expressions. Why should anyone care?

With the advantage of hindsight, we can look back and cluck our tongues at the morons who passed over acknowledged classics in favor of lightweight achievements. In the present day, we can question the sanity of nominating Sammi Cheng as best actress for three (!) films in the same year. Or question the motivations of people who nominated the little-seen July Rhapsody, or wonder at how Gordon Lam Ka-Tong was picked as a best supporting actor nominee for his work in Dance on a Dream, or try to imagine why Love on a Diet was selected as a best film nominee.

It can be fun to ridicule awards, to shake our head at the stupidity of the nominations, to bemoan the creative ignorance on display. Ultimately, though, it's just an opinion (a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter, according to Merriam-Webster College Dictionary) that is broadcast to a large audience. If you consider the opinion to be coming from an expert and, therefore, of greater value or importance than opinions from your friends, fine. But does anyone else's opinion ever match yours -- exactly -- in everything?

Awards serve a valuable and entertaining purpose. They stimulate discussion and can call attention to lesser-known works. (For example, more than 25 different titles were nominated for Hong Kong Film Awards this year.) Are they political? Sure. Are they awarded solely on the basis of merit? Of course not - unless their criteria for merit matches yours. Returning again to dictionary definitions, the most fitting one for award is probably this: "Something that is conferred or bestowed esp. on the basis of merit or need."