The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, popularly known as The Academy, is famously known for its film awards and lack of inclusivity in the films and actors who are nominated and win these awards.
To correct this public image, they have launched several tactics over the years, the latest of which is their fan-favorite award category. However, it seems that this new category may backfire as one film that wasn’t so popular with fans takes the lead ahead of more successful films. Read on to find out more.
Amazon’s ‘Cinderella’ Is In The Lead
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The introduction of the fan-favorite category was an effort by the Academy to be more inclusive and attract a younger demographic. However, with Amazon’s “Cinderella” taking the lead for the fan-favorite film of 2021, it seems that the initiative is faltering and may backfire on the Academy.
“Cinderella” was released in 2021 on Amazon’s Prime Video and starred singer Camila Cabello as the famous princess. Kay Cannon, the director for the comedy film “Blockers,” directed the movie, and James Corden produced it.
Unfortunately, “Cinderella” received immense negative reception from fans as soon as the trailer premiered, and upon the film’s release, it met even more negative reception from viewers and film critics.
Fans Thought’ Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Would Win Easily
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The guidelines for the #OscarsFanFavorite awards are as follows: Fans can tweet their choice for best film of 2021 a minimum of 20 times a day. Any film they nominate must have been released between March 1st and December 31st, 2021, to be eligible for the Oscar Award.
Then, when it is time for the ceremony, the Academy will fly out three fans to Los Angeles to present the category and announce the winner. With how popular “Spider-Man: No Way Home” was amongst viewers and critics, many fans thought that it would easily take the lead and win the award, but that may end up not happening.
Fans Have Criticized The Category
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The Fan favorite award category has met with criticism from Academy voters and the media. People have called it another one of the Academy’s shallow ploys to gain traction with the younger crowd and recognize films that they would ordinarily consider not to be “Oscar material.”
Fans have continued to flood popular social media like Twitter, the platform for voting, with their adverse reactions to the category. It is even worse now that “Cinderella” is in the lead as many thought that if Spider-Man didn’t win, it would be Zack Snyder’s “Justice League: Snyder’s Cut.”
A significant problem with the category and its voting guidelines is that Twitter is being used to cast votes, which creates a bias against fans who aren’t on the platform. “Cinderella” being in the lead also throws a negative light on the integrity of the Academy and questions what kind of precedent it’ll set for the future of the category.
The Oscars’ Ratings Has Fallen Over The Years
It’s popular news that the Oscars’ ratings have steadily plummeted over the past few years. The Academy had tried hard to combat this, such as when they introduced the ten Best Picture nominees in 2009. A significant contention for those spurning the awards is that there has been minimal effort to include films that are actually popular to the general public.
In 2018, the Academy proposed the Best Popular Film category, and it was met with so much negativity and derision that they canceled the idea. Fans are now saying that the Fan-Favorite category is simply a rework of that category and that it reeks of desperation.
Fans are also disregarding the Fan-favorite category because, despite all the publicity for it, the Academy did not make it an “official” category. Regardless, the show will continue, and on March 27th, fans will find out if “Cinderella” is truly the fan-favorite film of 2021.
