Awards season is fast approaching and along with it comes a question that only grows in relevance each year: Do people still care about the Oscars? The Oscars have stood the test of time as the largest award show for film and are integral to how the industry operates. Some Directors create with the sole goal of obtaining one of the iconic trophies, and a win can define how an actor/actress obtains new roles or negotiates through their career. While clearly important for the industry, the same cannot be said for the audiences of recent years. Whether or not an actor or film receives a nod from the academy is no longer the definitive sign of quality it once was.

It isn’t that the Oscars are now suddenly out of touch with what audiences enjoy. There have always been discrepancies between awards and public consensus. Broke Back Mountain, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Do the Right Thing were all snubbed at the awards despite being cultural landmarks in film. No, the change has occurred with how audiences interact with film. With the rise of the internet, everyone now gets an opinion on film that they can voice easily. Fans don’t need the Oscars to confirm their enjoyment of a film when they have millions of other people online to do so. 

The biggest movies now consist of superheroes and IP-driven franchises made to farm money and grab attention, aren’t represented at the awards. The artistically driven films like The Brutalist or Conclave that reign over the Oscars don’t help attract people to sit through the long ceremony unless they have a true passion for the art. Couple this with the slow death of cable television, with streaming making up over 40% of television viewing according to Nielsen statistics, and the future of the awards looks bleak. The Oscars may rise or fall, but the appreciation of film goes nowhere. As long as there are artists there will be people with a deep desire to consume that art and shout their praises to anyone who will listen.