The Oscars Are Still Broken

It’s Oscar season again which means it’s time for my annual tradition of yelling into the void about how the Academy Awards don’t actually measure what they claim to measure.

The nominations came out. The Brutalist got a bunch because it’s legitimately great. Anora got a bunch because Sean Baker is finally getting his due. Wicked got a bunch because it made a billion dollars and the Academy loves to reward money. Emilia Pérez got a bunch because. Actually I’m not sure why. I saw that movie and I still don’t understand what it was trying to do.

Here’s my problem. Every year it’s the same conversation. Did the Academy get it right? Who got snubbed? Who got nominated that shouldn’t have? And we have this conversation as if the Oscars are measuring something objective. As if there’s a correct answer to “best picture” that the Academy either identifies or misses.

There isn’t. Obviously. “Best” is subjective. Always has been. The Oscars are a popularity contest among a voting body that skews old, white, and industry-connected. The results reflect what THOSE people think is good. Which is fine. But let’s stop pretending it’s anything more than that.

The bigger issue is that the Oscars have become detached from actual moviegoing. Most people haven’t seen the nominated films. Most people don’t care. The ceremony gets lower ratings every year. And the Academy’s response is to. What. Add more categories? Do weird bits? Have celebrities read mean tweets?

The problem isn’t the ceremony. The problem is the movies themselves.

Look at the best picture nominees this year. How many of them did you see in a theater? How many of them even PLAYED in a theater near you? The theatrical experience has been carved up by streaming. By the pandemic. By economic factors that make it impossible for mid-budget adult dramas to exist. The movies the Oscars want to celebrate are increasingly movies that normal people can’t see until they show up on streaming months after the ceremony.

So what are the Oscars actually celebrating? Not cinema as a communal experience. That’s dying. They’re celebrating prestige content. Premium cable programming that happens to debut in theaters for three weeks so it can qualify. It’s television masquerading as movies.

And the stuff that DOES play in theaters? Superhero movies. Franchise sequels. Nostalgia bait. The Oscars don’t know what to do with those. They add technical categories. They nominate Black Panther for best picture once and pat themselves on the back. But they don’t actually engage with what movies have become in 2025.

I’m not saying the Oscars should nominate Avengers: Endgame for best picture. I’m saying the entire framework is broken. The categories assume a film industry that doesn’t exist anymore. The voting body represents an establishment that’s being replaced. The ceremony celebrates movies that nobody watches in a format nobody uses in venues that are closing.

Does this mean I’ll stop watching the Oscars? No. Of course not. I’m a film person. It’s what we do. We complain about the Oscars and then we watch the Oscars and then we complain about what happened at the Oscars.

But maybe this year we can at least admit that we’re watching a memorial service for something that’s already dead.

Anyway. The Brutalist should win best picture. It won’t. Something safer will.

That’s how it goes.