Oscar Sound Off: Do the Academy Awards Actually Matter in 2013?

This Sunday night, the 85th Annual Academy Awards Ceremony will take place at the Dolby Theatre right here in the heart of Hollywood. It’s the biggest of all award shows, the culmination of months and months of speculation from supposed “experts” and millions of dollars spent behind the scenes to jockey certain films into the best position possible to take home as many trophies as they can. The question in the headline isn’t meant to single out this year specifically, but instead to wonder, in an age in which technology makes award shows like these more ubiquitous than ever before, if the Oscars really still mean anything anymore. As die-hard film fans (and let’s face it, if you’re reading this, you are one), we’re bombarded with hundreds if not thousands of articles around this same time for months every year: whether one movie deserves to win Best Picture over another, who was snubbed, which film is the frontrunner, why this movie …