The Oscars, the supreme awards of American cinema, announced on Monday the creation of an audience award which will celebrate the most popular film of the season next month and which will be chosen via a vote organized on Twitter. The move is likely intended to attract a new loyal following as audiences for the TV show have only plummeted in recent years. The announcement also comes after nominations unveiled last week snubbed big Hollywood productions 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 alienate the general public from the Oscars ceremony, the 94th edition of which is held on March 27 in Los Angeles. Hence this idea of promoting this new Oscar category by calling on fans to vote on Twitter for their favorite film of 2021 using the hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite, or directly on the Academy of Oscars website. The audiences for the ceremony have collapsed in recent years, with only ten million viewers last year for an edition which, due to the pandemic, mainly awarded independent films like Nomadland by Chloé Zhao. This figure was down 56% from the previous edition, itself at an all-time low. For Meryl Johnson, vice-president of the Academy of Oscars in charge of digital marketing, the creation of a audience will allow moviegoers to “engage in the show in real time, build community and be part of the experience like never before”. Fans are allowed to vote up to twenty times per day and voting will close on 3rd of March. Three lucky winners will be invited to present an Oscar during the 2023 edition.
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