I love awards shows.

While some people dread those nights when Hollywood icons are celebrated and praised for their day’s work, I crave them. The satisfaction when a truly deserving actor wins an award, the disappointment when someone I want to win doesn’t, the montages, the performances — I love it all.

So, as you can imagine, I spent all Sunday anticipating the Academy Awards — the biggest night of the year for movies. Unfortunately, as I sat in my living room, the Hollywood glitter didn’t seem quite as dazzling as usual.

First of all, there were 10 movies nominated instead of the usual five for best picture. Seriously? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I was under the impression nominations were to recognize a few of the best made movies of the year — not to open the floodgate for all movies that did well in the box office and had decent reviews.

By increasing the number of nominees, it not only gave false hope to movies clearly not going to win the coveted award, but it also trivialized the whole “it’s an honour to be nominated” thing.

But let’s forget the fact they expanded the number of nominations, or that they took away the musical numbers, or even that the speeches were yet again shortened.

Instead, let’s move on to the actual show.

I was ecstatic when it was announced that Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin were hosting. It seemed logical the pairing of their dry yet witty senses of humour would be a formula for success. While their one-liners definitely were a hit, the whole set seemed over-rehearsed and uninspired.

That seemed to be the tone for the entire show as it lacked the raw emotion I love. I don’t think the winners are to blame for this. The Academy decided to shorten their speech time, yet again, telling nominees to use the press conference to express their heart wrenching stories.

This meant even the winners who were all but guaranteed to draw emotion from the audience, such as Precious’ Mo’Nique, were cut short.

It seemed like the Academy tried to make up for this lack of emotion with the presentation of a “This is Your Life” sketch, where various celebrities talked about how great their celebrity friends are and how deserving they are of the nomination, etc. I’d rather have each winner get those 30 seconds back in their speech so they don’t have to choose between thanking their husband or their agent.

But ultimately, I’ll have to admit; the Awards drew me back in. After three hours of unfunny jokes, anti-climactic montages and uninspired fashion, the main categories of the night threw me for a loop.

That’s the beauty of the Academy Awards. No matter how many mishaps or disappointments the night provides, by the end, I always find myself blinded by the Hollywood dazzle.