We at BLAKE & WANG P.A. Entertainment Lawyer Los Angeles have been following closely as the Oscar race hots up. While we’ve focused a lot on Netflix’s battle to finally get acknowledged as a serious contender, and we’ve even covered some Oscar hopefuls as the rest of the award season has developed. Yet it’s time to look at a key issue that hasn’t been in the spotlight quite so much- how engaged are the Academy with this year's picks?
This awards season has been the year of upsets, after all. With almost every traditional venue shuttered, and the impossibility of the usual Oscar hype-campaign hitting the trails, there’s been next to no widespread celebration for contender movies. Half the time, studios and distributors were at a loss where to even begin to show their films. And despite the rapid adoption of the industry to digital award shows, there hasn’t even been the usual chances for voting members to mingle, chat, and bounce ideas off of each other.
It’s worth asking, with this in mind, if the AMPAS voters have really engaged with this year’s slate of movies the way we would typically expect. Indeed, there’s some worrying insider information suggesting a significant portion of the almost ten thousand voters have not watched much at all, despite the digital screening room provided to them. Of the 366 eligible movies this year, 223 don’t seem to have received much traction at all. Of course, some of the Oscar-eligible movies simply never were contenders just because of that eligibility, especially under this year’s relaxed rules. All the same, that’s a big number.
It seems there’s issues facing voters this year that, perhaps, were inevitable. Some feel overwhelmed at the number of eligible titles, while others cite app frustrations. All the same, and while it’s reasonable that this would be the year with the lowest overall engagement, that’s still more than a little worrying. BLAKE & WANG P.A Entertainment Attorney Los Angeles will keep an eye on developments so you don’t have to.
