The awards fix.

(From Malay Mail)

Byline: Jafwan Jaafar

WITH their headache-inducing ostentatiousness; brazen self-aggrandisement; incestuous back-patting; and yawn-triggering irrelevance to the advancement of the craft of filmmaking, Hollywood's award ceremonies could be said to appeal to discerning television viewers about as much as a live telecast of grass growing.

And yet, I, the (self-described) lofty aesthete, have, for much of my starry-eyed life, been a rabid, teeth-baring aficionado of the movie world's annual trophy discus-throwing rituals.

Granted - I'm occasionally stricken by terminal cases of viewer apathy, when neither the nail-biting …