At the Oscars in 2022, the audience will probably have the opportunity to have a say for the first time – fans should be able to vote for their favorite film online.
Los Angeles – After the Oscars, there is often dissatisfaction – film fans would have seen another film in first place. Soon they will likely have the opportunity to do what was previously only available to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: vote for their favorite film themselves.
Fans can then participate via Twitter or the Oscars website. There they can vote up to 20 times a day until March 3 for the film that they think should receive the audience award. Online voting would give audiences the opportunity to “participate in the show in real time,” US Film Academy Vice President Meryl Johnson said on Monday (02/14/22).
Oscar ceremony: Declining viewership as a trigger for the audience award?
In another poll, fans could choose moments when the audience “couldn’t help but erupt in cheers.” The five most voted “movie celebration moments” will be shown on Oscar night. The VP finds the polls give audiences the opportunity “to be a part of the experience in a way they couldn’t before.”
So far, only the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as the US film academy is officially called, have voted on the awards. However, the possibility of voting by fans could now remedy the sharply declining ratings for the award ceremony. As the Tagesspiegel reported, only around ten million people watched the presentation of what is still the most important film prize in the world last year. That’s less than half of 2020’s rates, which were already a negative record. The US Film Academy can only dream of 43 million viewers on US television, as in 2014.
Oscar nominations show reaction to audience criticism
The poor ratings in the pandemic year 2021 are probably due to the fact that the cinemas were mostly closed due to Corona. In addition, the corona restrictions influenced the entire gala. However, critics also attribute the decreasing relevance of the awards to the fact that many box office hits have not been honored at the Oscars in recent years – the award-winning films were often not among the crowd-pullers. The lack of entertainment value of the Oscars is said to be one of the reasons for the declining number of viewers. That’s why there will be presenters at the Oscars 2022 for the first time in four years – or rather presenters.
The nominations for the 94th Oscars in more than 20 categories are already known. They show that the US Film Academy has ruled on Oscars-so-white and MeToo debates. With twelve nominations, the western The Power of the Dog is the biggest favorite. Who will end up getting one of the coveted gold boys will be revealed on March 27 in Los Angeles. (Monja Stolz with material from AFP)
Headline list image: © Matt Sayles / dpa
