The Oscars, supreme awards of American cinema, have announced the creation of an audience award which will reward the most popular film of the year via a vote on Twitter.
Every Twitter user has just been promoted to Academy Award Jury. This Monday, February 14, the organizers of the most prestigious ceremony in American cinema announced the creation of a new category of award: the audience award, whose votes will be counted via Twitter.
From this Monday, users of the blue bird social network will have the opportunity to reward their favorite film. To do this, the process is simple: tweet the name of a film that we liked, released in 2021 and nominated or not for an Oscar, on the hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite. The film that receives the most fan votes by March 3 will be recognized at the 94th Academy Awards, which will take place March 27 in Los Angeles.
Big productions snubbed
The announcement comes on the heels of nominations unveiled last week that snubbed big Hollywood productions like Spider-Man: No Way Home or the latest James Bond – films that almost single-handedly saved the box office during a year of health restrictions.
Specialists fear that this absence will further distance the general public from the Oscars ceremony. Hence this idea of promoting this new award category by calling on fans to vote for their favorite film of 2021 on Twitter or directly on the Academy of Oscars website.
Raise audiences
This decision is presumably intended to attract a new audience of devotees. Indeed, the audiences for the televised ceremony have only dropped in recent years, with only ten million viewers in 2021 for an edition which, due to the pandemic, has mainly awarded independent films such as Nomadland by Chloe Zhao. This figure was down 56% compared to the previous edition, itself at an all-time low.
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For Meryl Johnson, vice president of the Academy of Oscars in charge of digital marketing, the creation of an audience award will allow moviegoers to “participate in the spectacle in real time, to create a community and to be part of the experience like never before.”
Internet users are allowed to vote up to 20 times a day and the ballot will close on March 3. It will also be possible to share your favorite movie moment with the hashtag #OscarsCheerMoment. Three lucky ones will be drawn at random to present an Oscar during the 2023 edition and win a year of free films.
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