by Emily Rotthaler–Rattled by a pandemic, losing viewers, and faced with the task of making the Oscars more diverse, the Academy Awards are going into their 93rd round this Sunday.
Originally, this year’s Oscars were supposed to take place on February 28 but in an attempt to curb some of the impacts of COVID-19 on the movie industry they were postponed to April 25.
Corona, however, is not the only problem the Oscars have had to deal with recently. Over the last few years, viewership of the telecast has declined. According to Stephen Battaglio from the Los Angeles Times, the Oscars’ audience was at a record low in 2020 and is predicted to further decline this year.
Even though the Oscars still act as a measurement of success and quality, the Award Show itself has begun to slip out of the public’s attention.
Morningside Sophomore Megan Messersmith said she never watches the Oscars at all. “I didn’t watch the Oscars growing up and I think that’s one of the reasons I don’t really watch them now.” She added that she wouldn’t know a single person nominated this year because she doesn’t pay any attention to the Awards.
And even among those paying attention, as with many other live award shows, there is a trend towards checking up on nominations and winners online.
International sophomore Rena Ketelsen said she is interested in the Oscars but doesn’t watch the live show. “I usually check the results afterwards on the internet to see which movies won and which were nominated.”
She added, she had a different reason for never watching the Academy Awards: because for people living in Europe they are inconveniently happening in the middle of the night.
Another issue the Academy Awards have had to face are serious allegations of racism and sexism in regard to nominations and winners. Calls to diversify the Awards have been especially loud since activist April Reign created the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite in 2015.
That was a response to all of the 20 acting nominations being awarded to white actors that year. The hashtag went viral and brought public and media attention on the issue. Ever since then, the part of the public paying attention to the Oscars has kept a watchful eye on the diversification and inclusion efforts of the Awards.
Ketelsen is curious to see whether this year’s Awards will produce more diverse winners. “I think they are going to not only nominate and award Oscars to white people but consider more people who are not white and not male.”
Whether or not this will be the case will become clear on Sunday. Until then, those who are interested in the Oscars can find a list of all the nominations on the Awards website.
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