LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Subsequent month’s Oscars will embrace a brand new “fan favorite” prize for the yr’s hottest movie as voted for by Twitter customers, organisers mentioned on Monday (Feb 14), in search of to lure viewers again to a ceremony that has seen audiences plummet.
The announcement – which will probably be made through the 94th Academy Awards telecast on March 27 – comes after a number of crowd-pleasing blockbusters, together with Spider-Man: No Means Residence and James Bond movie No Time To Die, did not earn Oscar nominations in main classes, together with greatest image.
Their omission raised fears that many film followers will skip the present.
However any movie launched in 2021 could be voted for within the new class utilizing the Twitter hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite or by way of the Academy’s web site, elevating the probabilities of a blockbuster being honoured on the evening.
Tv rankings for the Oscars have dramatically declined in recent times.
Final yr’s version, which honoured primarily smaller, arthouse motion pictures akin to greatest image winner Nomadland, was watched by simply over 10 million viewers – a 56 per cent decline from 2020, which was already a report low.
As Oscars voters have more and more drifted away from extra mainstream fare, the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences has toyed with varied reforms to spice up the ceremony’s reputation.
In 2018, organisers proposed a “common movie” Oscar to honour blockbuster motion pictures akin to Star Warfare movies or Marvel superhero movies that rake in hundreds of thousands on the field workplace.
Nevertheless it swiftly shelved these plans after critics ridiculed the transfer, and the brand new “fan favorite” award won’t be a proper Oscar class.
Ms Meryl Johnson, the Academy’s vice-president of digital advertising, mentioned the transfer would “assist construct an engaged and excited digital viewers main as much as this yr’s ceremony” and permit followers to “have interaction with the present in real-time, discover a neighborhood and be part of the expertise in methods they’ve by no means been in a position to earlier than”.
Twitter’s Sarah Rosen mentioned the collaboration was “an thrilling strategy to additional have interaction film followers and rejoice their love and keenness for the movies launched this yr”.
Film followers can vote as much as 20 instances per day till March 3, and three randomly chosen winners will probably be invited to current an Oscar at subsequent yr’s ceremony.
A separate ballot will ask voters to selected their favorite “film cheer second”. The 5 hottest decisions – billed as scenes the place “audiences could not assist however erupt into cheers in theatres” – will probably be proven through the Oscars.
Subsequent month’s Oscars will return to the ceremony’s conventional Dolby Theatre venue in Hollywood, after the pandemic-affected 2021 Academy Awards had been held at a Los Angeles prepare station.
They’re being held later than common, reportedly to keep away from clashing with February’s Winter Olympics in Beijing and Sunday’s Tremendous Bowl in Los Angeles.