Spider-Man: No Way Home and Dune are among the shortlisted films for the 2022 Oscars Fan Favorite Award. The award originated in 2018 as the Academy Award for Best Popular Film, which was cancelled due to being panned by members of the Academy as a way of diminishing blockbusters' chances to receive a Best Picture nomination. This year, however, the Oscars Fan Favorite Award will be given out at the official ceremony on March 27, and be decided by a public vote on Twitter.
The Tom Holland-led MCU film Spider-Man: No Way Home proved a box office mega-hit immediately after its release in December 2021, bringing back several characters from previous Spider-Man movies. Dune is an epic sci-fi film from director Denis Villeneuve, and an adaptation of Frank Herbert's original 1965 novel. After its huge box office success and high praise from both critics and fans, many viewers and entertainment industry heavy-hitters criticized the fact that No Way Home was left off the 2022 Oscars Best Picture nominations list, citing a historic trend of superhero movies struggling to receive awards nods. Dune was nominated for Best Picture, but Villeneuve did not receive a Best Director nomination, which also stirred up some backlash.
Now, The Academy has shared the official Top 10 Fan Favorite leaderboard list as voting currently stands. In addition to Spider-Man: No Way Home and Dune, other leaders include Army of the Dead, Cinderella, Malignant, Minamata, The Power of the Dog, Sing 2, The Suicide Squad, and Tick, Tick...Boom! The Academy posted the list along with a reminder that voting for the award is still ongoing, closing on March 3. Check out the post below:
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Of the above list, Dune and The Power of the Dog are the only films to make the Fan Favorite shortlist and also be nominated for Best Picture. This appears to emphasize a gap between the public's preferences and The Academy's choices. The introduction of the award itself has already received backlash from industry professionals and fans alike as a ploy to bolster the declining ratings of the Oscars ceremony. However, the Fan Favorite Award is not the only controversial change that has been made to the 2022 Oscars. The Academy's recent decision to cut eight awards from its live broadcast and shorten the ceremony also received criticism. This year's Oscars will also introduce the Oscars Cheer Moment Award, which allows fans to vote for an iconic moment in any movie, not just a 2021 release. Despite having all of movie history to choose from for this award, three out of the five nominees were from films in the last three years, with the earliest coming from 1999's The Matrix. Spider-Man: No Way Home's "Spider-Man Team Up" moment also made this list.
The Academy's many changes to the 2022 Oscars is an attempt to make the historic awards ceremony relevant to modern audiences. While many believe that the Oscars are the gold standard for film awards and an opportunity for lower-budget, small-scale movies to get recognition alongside major blockbusters, others believe that the ceremony is biased and outdated in many ways, and doesn't appreciate the general public's preferences. While some films, including Dune, overlap, the disconnect between The Academy and audiences appears to grow each year. The Fan Favorite Award may be a chance to work towards closing this gap by recognising beloved action-superhero movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home or family movies like Sing 2, but interest in the Oscars will become clear when the ceremony airs next month.
Source: The Academy