The Oscars are sadly becoming less and less relevant, and the iconic awards body is now clutching at straws in an attempt to increase popularity and bring back the viewers. With this in mind, the Academy established a new award this year, for fan favourite movie, and has let fans cast the deciding vote via Twitter. As expected, this has not quite gone to plan, with fans flocking to support the much-maligned Prime Video Cinderella remake of 2021.
As is always the case when the general public are allowed to decide on anything (see also Boaty McBoatface), a hilarious turn of events sees the Cinderella movie leading the way in the voting currently. The musical hit streaming service Prime Video last year and received a fairly negative reaction upon its release, but fans of its star, Camilla Cabello, clearly love the movie.
The fan favourite award itself has been criticised heavily, viewed by many as a shallow attempt to win over the populous to make the awards ceremony more relevant, in light of dwindling viewership figures. And if the skewed voting continues in the same vein, the new award will see the Oscars in the limelight for all the wrong reasons, once again.
The rules of the award are simple: for a movie to be eligible for the fan favourite award, it would have to be released between March 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021. But here’s where the real issue starts; fans can vote for their pick up to 20 times a day! As you can imagine, fans are well and truly spamming the hashtag #OscarsFanFavourite.
It was initially believed that the award would end up in the hands of Marvel favourite Spider-Man: No Way Home, after its apparent snub by the Academy, or the incredibly popular Zack Snyder’s Justice League. But it would appear the power of Camilla Cabello, or perhaps James Corden, is too strong for even Spidey and the Justice League to overcome.
Bringing this back since #Cinderella is leading the Oscar’s Fan Favourite poll https://t.co/QV99Lmps5w
— Seth Bob-Omb (@TheFlemishSeth) February 20, 2022
While there is clearly a corner of social media who feel very strongly in favour of Cinderella’s right to the award, there are many who ridicule the movie and its chances of winning, too. So, in a sense, the Oscars has definitely got people talking about them again, but for all the wrong reasons.