Earlier in the week, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, or the Academy, announced that they were changing up some of their policies for future Oscar award ceremonies. Most of the announcements were humdrum topics, like changing the date for the 2020 Oscars or letting everyone know that the Oscars are going to be three hours on the dot and not take an eternity to air. The big issue that has everyone all in a huff, though, is that the Oscars are going to announce a new category, one dedicated to popular films released during the year.
Once the news hit, people began to immediately cry that “The Oscars have sold out!” or “Artistic integrity is dead!” or my personal favorite, “It’s cheapening the value of the Oscars!” You would think that the Academy came to every film critic’s house and proceeded to kill their puppy based on how universally panned the idea is. Me personally, I actually think it’s a pretty good idea.
No seriously, I think that the Oscars are taking a solid step forward to being relevant again and not just for film snobs with a lot of time on their hands. It’s no secret that the Oscars have been dealing with declining viewership for years. Even with all of the recent changes to membership and having a huge platform for the Time’s Up movement that was meant to bring in more viewers, the 2018 Oscars had the lowest viewership ever, sinking to under 30 million for the night. The Oscars has tried to get more people to tune in but they just keep failing. Making a popular film category seems like the next logical step.
Source: Destructoid Having a Best Popular Movie category at the Oscars is actually a really nice idea