Every year, members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences vote in various categories for film achievements. The winners are then presented at the widely popular Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars. The members of the Academy consist of actors, directors, writers, cinematographers and people of other roles in the film industry. The expectation for the voters is to view films and performances, then vote on which one is the best. Yet, some voters cannot even get past the first step of watching the films.
The Academy does not require that voters have seen every film, they are only asked to watch as many as possible and to vote for the ones they have seen. Voters also do not have to vote in every category. Every year, anonymous voters reveal their picks and reasons behind them, and this year’s picks have not been so positively received.
Entertainment Weekly published an article revealing four anonymous voters’ choices for a handful of categories. All four voters abstained “Dune: Part Two” from their Best Picture ballots. One voter said, “The first “Dune,” I couldn’t get through; I’m not rushing for another three hours of “Dune.”’ Another voter said they were “super bored” by the first “Dune.” Although watching every film is strangely not required, one of the only jobs these voters have is watching 10 movies in a single year. Aside from personal preference, which should not be a factor in objective voting, there is no reason not to view every Best Picture nominee for the year. Yes, film is art and art is subjective, but sometimes there is a difference between what you consider your favorite movie and what you consider to be the best.
In an article for IndieWire, an anonymous voter said they voted for Karla Sofía Gascón because “Cynthia Erivo was actually too old for ‘Wicked.’” It should not matter if Erivo was 80 years old at the time of filming, if she put on the best performance of the year, then she put on the best performance. These voters should be making their picks based on performances and nothing else.
Variety published an article with more anonymous Oscar voters. The article states, “Surprisingly, two separate voters who didn’t vote for [Ralph] Fiennes said they did not vote for him because ‘he won before.’” These voters’ impression that Fiennes had won an Oscar for a previous movie was false, consequently penalizing the actor due to voter negligence. It gets worse as these voters admitted they voted for Adrien Brody, who actually had won an Oscar for the 2002 movie “The Pianist.” Not only do some voters not have their Oscar knowledge up to date, but they do not even bother to quickly look something up to make an educated decision.
Voters who fail to watch all the movies have also been criticized by fellow voters. In Variety’s article, anonymous “Voter #6” said, “I watch everything! I hate it when people don’t take this job seriously. It’s our responsibility to watch all of it.” More famously, in 2022, when asked if there were any more films she needed to see, actress Kirsten Dunst replied, “no, I saw everything because I am a member of the Academy.”
Between voters failing to watch every nominated film and voting based on anything other than pure performance or cinema, it is getting harder to take the Oscars seriously. Picking the best film or performances of the year should not be based on personal preference. In such an esteemed awards show, it is hard to believe how many voters do not take their jobs as seriously as they are made out to be.
