Women and gents, the thriller has lastly been solved: We now know why the Oscars have sometimes handed out statues to rubbish movies that made half the web go, “Wait… actually?” It’s as a result of, as loopy and unfair as this sounds, some Academy voters weren’t even watching the flicks they had been voting on. And, apparently, no one actually cared.
Till now. In a flip of occasions that feels, a minimum of to me, much less like information and extra like a confession, the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences has introduced that for subsequent 12 months’s 98th annual Oscars, voters will now be required to observe all the nominated movies in a class earlier than they’re allowed to vote within the remaining spherical.
Let’s pause and let that sink in.
In gentle of the brand new guidelines and deadlines for the 98th Oscars that the Academy has simply made official, it looks like primary logic to require that voters watch all of the nominated movies in a class earlier than casting their ballots. As a substitute of simply, you already know, voters going with their intestine. Accordingly, cue the collective head-scratching and incredulous tweets:
- “Insane this wasn’t already a rule.”
- “Wow, I used to be underneath the impression they watched each movie!”
- “Do they ship individuals spherical to voters’ houses to examine their watch lists?”
These reactions just about say all of it. This isn’t only a delicate procedural tweak — it’s a long-overdue actuality examine that exposes simply how damaged elements of the method have been. Think about being one of many filmmakers who poured their soul right into a nominated film, solely to appreciate that some voters by no means even bothered to click on “play.” It’s not simply insulting — it undermines the entire level of the awards.
What makes this particularly maddening is how typically we’ve all side-eyed sure wins or nominations over time, questioning how one thing so clearly mid might have made it via the gauntlet of “knowledgeable” voters. Seems, it’s not that voters had questionable style — it’s that a few of them won’t have had any style in any respect, as a result of they hadn’t even watched the darn factor.
To be truthful, the Academy is made up of hundreds of business professionals, a lot of whom are extraordinarily busy, juggling tasks and premieres and press excursions. However the level of getting a vote within the Oscars is that it’s not only a vainness position — it comes with a accountability to take the time, interact with the artwork, and vote accordingly. If that’s an excessive amount of to ask, possibly you shouldn’t have a poll within the first place.
Now, enforcement is one other story solely.
Except I missed it within the announcement particulars (I don’t assume I did), the Academy hasn’t mentioned the way it plans to confirm that voters are watching what they’re alleged to. Is that this going to be an honor system? A monitoring function on the Academy’s streaming platform? A pop quiz from Jimmy Kimmel? Who is aware of. What we do know is that the Academy has a minimum of acknowledged the significance of doing this, and that’s a begin.
So sure — “Insane this wasn’t already a rule” is perhaps probably the most correct take anybody’s posted to this point. But it surely additionally shines a light-weight on how a lot the Oscars are nonetheless enjoying catch-up within the age of Peak All the pieces. Actually, if the voters who take part within the world’s most prestigious movie awards can’t even be bothered to press play, I don’t need to hear one other phrase from this business ever once more about audiences not exhibiting as much as films.
