Please, put the Oscars to a public vote

We'll do a better job

I’m embarrassingly excited for the Oscars tonight.

As the years go on, it feels like the golden statuette holds diminishing value, thanks to the laziness of some Academy voters. I’ll defend the wonder and magic of cinema until my last breath, but I’m running out of air for the ceremony itself.

We’ll be served some looks, hear maybe sixty seconds worth of earnestness on stage that won’t come close to Timmy’s and be disappointed by at least three categories where it feels like someone’s paid somebody a hefty sum to take the not-so-hefty Oscar home.

Having finally had a year where I’ve watched all the Best Picture nominees, as well as all but four of the nominated films, I’ve found myself increasingly concerned by an absent answer to the question of who the Oscars are for.

I don’t think they’re for ‘the industry’ anymore, that’s what the SAGs are for and they do it well: I’ll never tire of the ‘I Am An Actor’ segment and I think it gets classier every year. The Oscars aren’t for us, that’s for sure. We don’t get a say and we’re endlessly tired by the failings of massive studios in background checking potential nominees before investing into them and letting us invest time into them, too.

I grew up with British primetime television and I constantly think about the excitement of the mid-2000s and early 2010s talent shows with those ever-present banners across the bottom of the screen reminding you who to vote for and how to vote (and how much it cost); allowing us the possibility to take our passion for a competitor and help them win by voicing our love through the all-important public vote.

Why have we deemed the public unable to choose what’s a good film?

We have test screenings, we have focus groups, we have writers’ rooms dedicated to tapping into public discourse and relatability: all in the hope of resonating with audiences who will part with their hard-earned dollar to go to the cinema to watch their million-dollar project. That’s what it comes down to for a modern-day film: how many people will watch it, how many people will care, what will people think, what will the critics say, who will make a stan account for it and it goes on.

So when it comes to bestowing the supposedly highest honours, the public suddenly don’t count?

The Golden Globes even have an award dedicated to Box Office Achievement which is literally defined by a film’s ability to “garner audience support” through ticket sales. I don’t necessarily think that’s a great measure of a film’s achievement in an age where a cinema ticket can vary so greatly in price and thus, reduce the accessibility of viewing for a wider audience automatically.

I understand: the Academy voters are pretty much hand-picked from the industry at this point and this argument’s been made a million times. It’s not changing anytime soon and there’s not much incentive for it to change - forgive me for being hopeful.

But even if you come at it from another angle as the Observer has done before tonight’s ceremony, there’s the implication of having such a lavish and garish ceremony in the wake of such substantial destruction at the hands of the LA wildfires. It’s not a new argument that the Academy is so far removed from the realities of something more than just upper-class living: the #OscarsSoWhite year hammered that into place and the unshakeable Emilia Perez has emphasised the dissonance once again. But settling with the fact that this prestigious-in-practice ceremony actually means so little in theory isn’t a nice feeling.

Us cinephiles are excited to share our fan-made ballots, our Letterboxd lists, our Reddit rankings and yet it’s all for naught. We’ll have parties and broadcasts and commentaries, but all the decisions have already been made. By the end of the night, we’ll have supposedly identified the best acting performances of the year, but only the ones supported and promoted by the studios with the funding for a FYC campaign.

What’s funny and ironic is the apparent self-awareness that our beloved celebrities have around the façade of the Oscars having any stature anymore. Today, Apple TV+ posted a clip from The Studio, an upcoming fictional deep-dive into Hollywood from Seth Rogen, that worked as brilliant marketing with the timing of the Oscars. I’ll let you watch it on your own for the sake of the no-spoiler crew.

So the executives know how much the public opinion matters, the celebrities know how they’re perceived, but I still don’t get to cast five votes a day for Fernanda Torres.

Whatever, I’m still watching - and you probably are, too.