Now one of the most famous award shows, “The Oscars" came out with its 2023 nominations, and they show how tone deaf and out of touch these award shows really are.
Award shows in the past and now have thrown their weight behind movies and shows no-one cared about, and this year is no exception.
The film "All Quiet on the Western Front," a limited release in the box office from Netflix, had an overall 7.8 stars on IMDb and received 9 nominations while “Nope," a box office success that brought in 171.4 million dollars and overall 6.9 stars on IMDb, received no nominations. Now, while you’ve probably heard of one of these films versus the other, the less known film got a hefty amount of nominations.
Most award shows today are voted on by the elite members of their respective institutions. The Oscars are voted on by the academy. Who is the academy you might ask? They describe their voting groups as “limited to film artists working in the production of theatrically released motion pictures.” Then divide these members in 17 different branches of around 10,000 members total from around the world.
Everyone in this elite group has to have at least one nomination, or be recommended by two existing members, so this elite group has even more elite criteria to vote. So no matter the popularity of a film, if the academy does not deem it worthy, it doesn't get nominated.
My question is how is a system so outdated that an elite class of people can hold these awards given publicly to themselves? While there are 7.8 billion people on the planet, 10,000 people get to decide what people enjoyed and award them for it.
Now the biggest problem is no one truly knows who's in this elite group of people as it’s not public knowledge, so how do we know who's voting for pictures? "The Oscars" and all award shows need a revamp to bring what people actually want into the picture.
Not only should POC and Black voices be shown more on the ballots, but more genres need to be recognized. These award shows show their ignorance by nominating War driven and whitewashed movies wile leaving out genres and people who make the movies really happen.
Horror is one of the genres constantly left out of the nominations, with movies like “Nope," “Pearl," and “The Menu" being snubbed with a lot more that should've been at least considered. Going by purely numbers, "Pearl" grossed 9.4 million dollars and had a 7/10 IMDb rating while "The Menu" grossed 78.9 million dollars and had a 7.2 IMDb rating. These movies not only were box office successes but were viral sensations that the majority of people loved.
Now not all award shows need to be solely awarded by the people, but the elite people who are in these films shouldn't be the only ones who get to decide what we like to watch and who deserves recognition.