Remember when the Academy attempted to create a Popular Movie Oscar category a few years ago? Well, it went up in flames, of course, but with ratings continuing to plummet in recent years, it seems the Academy is now looking closer at what else could have been Best Picture nominations this year, including critically acclaimed box office sensations like Spider-Man: No Way Home and No Time to Die.
In effect, Academy members won’t be the only ones voting for their favorite films this year. Enter the newly created Fan Favorite category. Kicking off earlier this month, Twitter users are now able to vote on their favorite films that were released in 2021 using the hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite. The film that receives the most fan votes by March 3 will be recognized during the awards broadcast on March 27. The Twitter love won’t end there. Three users who cast their votes will be selected to have an all-expenses-paid trip to Los Angeles to present an Oscar award at the following ceremony in 2023.
In celebration of the trending new category, we took a deep dive into the prestigious ceremony at large. History has certainly driven the need for a Fan Favorite trophy. Here's a closer look at everything you need to know about the Fan Favorite Award as we count down the days to the 94th Academy Awards.
What is the Most Prestigious Oscar Award?
Toward the beginning of each year, the entertainment community and film fans around the world turn their attention to the Academy Awards. Some may know this time frame as "awards season." Interest and anticipation build to a fevered pitch leading up to the Oscars telecast, when hundreds of millions of movie lovers tune in to watch the glamorous ceremony and learn who will receive the highest honors in filmmaking. The first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner function at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. This year’s nominations announcement took place on Tuesday, February 8. The 94th Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, March 27, 2022.
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film. Since it's the only category in which every member of the Oscars is eligible to submit a nomination and vote on the final ballot, one could argue the Best Picture category is the most prestigious honor of the ceremony. The Grand Staircase columns at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, where the Academy Awards ceremonies have been held since 2002, showcase every film that has won the Best Picture title since the award's inception, in case you're ever in the area.
Why is the Oscar so Prestigious?
Because the people voting for the awards are all industry members, the awards are generally based on merit. Directors vote for Best Director, actors vote for the Best Actor and Best Actress awards, screenwriters vote for the Best Screenplay awards — and so on. This means winners are chosen by their Hollywood peers, which is considered to be the highest honor and hence why the Oscar trophy is so prestigious.
In effect, just as the Oscars can "make the studio a more favorable landing place for agents and writers and producers,” said longtime awards consultant Tony Angellott to the Washington Post, they can “make something of a little-seen picture, and make it more important by virtue of the fact that it’s been recognized by this body of industry professionals." Moreover, even a nomination can catapult a movie to a higher level, as evidenced by Japan's Drive My Car receiving a premier on HBO Max in the wake of its multiple Oscar nominations.
Where the Idea for the Fan Favorite Award Came From
The Academy originally toyed with creating a most popular film category during the 91st Academy Awards in 2019 as a means to encourage more mainstream moviegoers to watch the ceremony and boost ratings. But after significant pushback from critics and Academy members, the plan was ultimately scrapped and has not yet been reintroduced since.
Though the fan-favorite film selected by Twitter users won’t be a formal Oscars category, it will give eager fans the opportunity to weigh in with their opinions of 2021’s best films, especially if they didn’t receive a nomination by the Academy — paving the way for a snubbed hit like Spider-Man: No Way Home to potentially find its way into the ceremony.
"We’re thrilled to partner with Twitter to help build an engaged and excited digital audience leading up to this year’s ceremony," said Meryl Johnson, VP of digital marketing at the Academy, to The Hollywood Reporter. "Through these activations, social media users around the world now have more opportunities to engage with the show in real time, find a community and be a part of the experience in ways they’ve never been able to before."
Who Could Win This Year?
According to Deadline, there was an initial tsunami of votes for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the original director’s four-hour recut of the 2017 disaster. As it turns out, the film wouldn't even be eligible. For the first couple of days of voting, its only real competition was Spider-Man: No Way Home. But if the Academy was hoping for this clever way to work the year’s truly most popular film into the show and get that splendid cast onstage, maybe think again: since the voting began, those counting the votes had Amazon’s streaming musical Cinderella starring Camila Cabello dominating the site, and growing to a No. 1 spot.
Meanwhile, fans were also active for Johnny Depp’s hardly-seen indie drama Minamata after it finally hit theaters after long legal delays, as it received no attention from Oscar voters. That is definitely not the case for Depp fans, one of whom tweeted "Let’s do it for Johnny." Even its director Andrew Levitas was tweeting it is his #OscarsFanFavorite.