The Camila Cabello Cinderella Is Leading The Polls In Oscars Fan Favorite Race
In what many suspect is an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and the failed fan-led campaign to have the film nominated for "Best Picture" at the 94th Academy Awards, the Academy has recently announced a new "Fan Favorite" award category. Rather than being selected by the mysterious members of the Academy, the voting power for this new category lies with Twitter users, who (as of February 14) can vote for their favorite movie using the hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite. Votes will be counted up until March 3, and the winner will be recognized in the March 27 broadcast.
Unlike traditional categories, the film that wins the "Fan Favorite" category won't be awarded a physical Oscar statuette, and at the time of reporting, there are no details concerning what the alternative physical award will actually look like. Maybe it'll be a smaller Oscar, or a coloring page with a coupon for a free pizza printed onto the back — who knows?
In theory, the introduction of a "Fan Favorite" category could easily give the Academy Awards a reason to have the "No Way Home" stars integrated into the award show, boosting the ratings and appeasing angry fans and those disillusioned by the Academy's routine snubbing and exclusion of movies that fall outside of the typical "prestige" film scope, without having to compromise the very intentional elitism of the Oscars.
An unexpected outcome
It seemed like the perfect plan ... except that instead of "No Way Home" easily overtaking the new category, the easily exploitable voting system has given way to unexpected frontrunners. "Zack Snyder's Justice League," the original director's cut of the infamous 2017 movie, garnered a wave of support. Unfortunately for Snyder fans, the film is ineligible for the "Fan Favorite" award or any other one, since it's a new cut of a previously-released movie rather than a wholly new release.
That means, per Deadline, the No. 1 spot can be taken by the Camilla Cabello "Cinderella" movie. That's right; there's a very real chance that the Amazon Prime "Cinderella" movie — the same one that had an ill-received viral ad campaign that included James Corden holding up traffic in a mouse costume — could achieve a diet-Oscar courtesy of enthusiastic Camilla Cabello stans who are taking advantage of the unprecedented opportunity to have some influence over the aging awards show. Despite this unexpected support, the 2021 "Cinderella" movie received generally unfavorable reviews. It's worth nothing that there's a certain irony in a category that was likely created specifically to acknowledge Sony's "Spider-Man: No Way Home" being overtaken by a much less successful film that Sony sold to Amazon.
It's also worth noting that this is not the first time the Academy has made an effort to temper criticism of its highly exclusive (and arguably antiquated) awards show. In 2018, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the organization that runs the Oscars) drew criticism for daring to create a new "Popular Film" category for the 2019 Academy Awards. That attempt to become more hip and relatable to a public that has grown increasingly disinterested in the nearly century-old event sparked such backlash that the category was dropped from the line-up before it ever truly came to fruition. The main criticisms were that "Popular Film" would diminish the significance and prestige of the Oscars, and that it was a cynical attempt to include popular movies while still keeping them out of the Best Picture line-up.
But given the current state of the "Fan Favorite" category, perhaps the "Popular Film" category would have been a comparatively more respectable bid at relevance and inclusion for the Academy. At least then the Academy would have still had the final say over the voting and selection process, allowing it to maintain some level of its coveted prestige rather than undermining its own attempts to be taken seriously in pursuit of ratings.