The faces of the Oscar on Peruvian TV: Pepe Ludmir, Bruno Pinasco, Fiorella Rodríguez, Morán and more

The 94th edition of the Oscar awards arrives this Sunday in the midst of great expectation. With last year’s audience figures at their lowest point, Will Packer, producer of this gala, carries on his shoulders the enormous responsibility of returning to the most important ceremony in cinema, the brilliance of its best times and increasing the flagging rating .

TV channels from more than 130 countries are preparing to broadcast live the awards ceremony of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that will take place at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. Peru, unfortunately, is not part of this select list.

Pioneer

In 1953, Pepe Ludmir, sent by Radio Panamericana, broadcast the Oscars for the first time, using -according to what he said in an interview with El Comercio- a wire recorder. That time only two journalists reported on the event: a cameraman from an American news program and him.

The Peruvian presenter achieved the record of 44 uninterrupted years broadcasting the Academy Awards from Los Angeles. First on the radio, then on delayed television. However, he was never able to do it live and direct.

The Hollywood show was seen in our country a week after its premiere and in a short version, lasting an hour and a half. The original was three hours.

In 1993, Ludmir resigned from Channel 5 and a year later he made his debut as part of the stable cast of Channel 2. The editions of the Oscar for that year and for 1995 were broadcast on the Av. San Felipe channel a week after the broadcast on I live on ABC.

His translation was impeccable and his extensive knowledge of the seventh art made him the ideal person to lead the most important film festival in the world in our country.

On February 12, 1996, when Frequency Latina was evaluating the possibility of broadcasting the Oscars live and direct, Pepe Ludmir died of a heart attack. That year, Mónica Zevallos took her place and as a commentator for the gala was her son, Bruce Ludmir, who, in the end, could not hold back his tears and cried as he remembered the classic farewell greeting that his father used to do at the end of each broadcast. of the Oscar: Bye Bruce, bye Sharon. See you in the cinema”.

new faces

In 2014 and 2015, Rodrigo González and Gigi Mitre, hosts of the memorable show program on Channel 2, “Amor, amor, amor”, took over the leadership of the prestigious world cinema event. Their limited knowledge of the seventh art earned them some criticism, especially on social networks, which they countered with a good sense of humor.

In 2017, the producer Ricardo Morán and the actress Fiorella Rodríguez together led the magnanimous event in the former Latin Frequency. This special broadcast marked the reappearance on television of the popular ‘Amistad Rodríguez’, who at the end of 2015 resigned from América Televisión to dedicate himself to acting.

Bruno Pinasco, host of “Cinescape” and one of the faces of Peruvian TV most related to cinema, despite the fact that the Academy Awards have never been broadcast by “America TV”, used to travel to Los Angeles to show the previous of the event on your channel. He was also the official presenter of the Oscar preview for Latin America on the TNT television network.

Uncertain future

In 2020, the Oscar awards ceremony stopped broadcasting by open signal. What is the reason? What will be the television future of the Academy Awards in our country? Bruno Pinasco and Fiorella Rodríguez answer these questions.

Why is it no longer transmitted by open signal?

Bruno Pinasco: In Peru it coincides with something very specific. Before it was broadcast on Mondays, then they moved it to Sunday, precisely to have more audience, but specifically in Peru it happens that Sunday journalistic programs go on Sundays that have all the editorial weight of the channels and absolute priority in the programming. So, the idea of ​​taking a journalistic program off the air to put on the Oscar turned out to be crazy.

At some point, the ceremony said: Why doesn’t “America TV” have the broadcasting rights? And one of the reasons is that. For example, “Fourth Estate” is not going to go off the air to play the Academy Awards. I think that in terms of sales it does work as a profitable product, that is, many sponsors were part of the commercial, but in terms of audience it did not represent a great program to change its programming one Sunday a year.

Fiorella Rodriguez: Because it is a content that does not sell much, probably a canned one sells more. The viewer does not feel very familiar Oscar. In Mexico there are actors who are always there, like Gael García Bernal or Diego Luna, in Spain we have Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, in Argentina Francella and Ricardo Darín. They can surprise. Peru is not that it has a participatory approach, we have had, but it is not a constant.

Why do you think the rating stopped supporting it? What will be the television future of the Academy Awards in our country?

Bruno Pinasco: We have to be honest, for some time now the ceremony is going well monse. You and I surely remember the ceremony from before with great affection, full of spectacular elements, many surprises and all the generations of actors together, in the same place. The Oscar has lost its entertainment category. At certain times the producers in charge of the show began to sacrifice the lavishness of a show to give priority to delivery and I think they made a mistake which is to take things very seriously. It’s entertainment, it’s Hollywood, it’s show business. I think at some point they thought it was the Cannes Film Festival. It became too serious, stuffy, they brought out the musical numbers. Before, the show was like a Broadway show: suddenly the stage would transform and hundreds of dancers, a robot, a monster, a dinosaur would come out… it was spectacular. You had live special effects, revolving stages, pyrotechnics. There were things that simply ceased to exist. It became a totally tedious, boring thing and I think that is reflected in the audience. I don’t know at what point Mr. Oscar became the serious one in the group and put aside the entertainment.

Fiorella Rodriguez: Before the Oscar was much more colorful, but if you start to analyze, each year has had a different theme. The other time I was talking to people from Latina about the ceremony and they told me with great sadness that they no longer had the transmission, but in their words there was an intention to recover it. I’ve been a cinephile for as long as I can remember, I’m one of the people who celebrates the Oscar more than his birthday and I look forward to it soon being broadcast again on an open signal. Yes it is possible, you just have to dress it up again.