On the 14th (local time), the U.S. entertainment media Hollywood Report announced on Twitter that the Academy Awards, which will be held in March, has established a popularity award category that receives and counts favorite works among 2021 releases.
The Academy Awards reportedly planned to increase popularity and attract attention by expanding voting rights not only to academy members but also to the general public to select candidates for this year's Academy Awards. If you post your favorite work with the hashtag #oscarsfanfavorite on Twitter from the 14th to March 3rd, the Academy Awards will count it and announce it on the day of the awards ceremony. In addition, three of the Twitter voters who participated in the vote were selected and promoted extensively by granting them the right to attend the 95th Academy Awards in 2023.
Merrill Johnson, vice president of digital marketing at the American Academy of Film and Arts Science (AMPAS), which organizes the Academy Awards, said, "We have partnered with Twitter this year to participate in the awards ceremony. We are excited and happy to secure a digital audience. Through the Popularity Award, social media users around the world can participate in the Academy Awards in real time and have more opportunities, he explained.
Earlier, the Academy Awards moved to establish a popular award category at the 91st Academy Awards held in 2019. Recently, Academy Awards have faced a crisis theory as ratings in the U.S. have decreased as well as public interest in the awards itself has fallen significantly. The Academy tried to establish a popularity award as part of overcoming this crisis, but the popularity award category was not established due to opposition from critics and academy members at the time. After many twists and turns, this year's Academy Awards decided to introduce the popularity award category, encouraging public participation.
Works that benefit from the establishment of the popularity award category are also drawing much attention. Above all, Marvel's hero movies, which had to be cold every time at the Academy Awards, are expected to be mentioned as the popularity award category, taking the honor of winning the award. In particular, this year's COVID-19 Pandemic is highly likely to win the "Spider-Man: Noway Home" (21, head coach John Watts), which has been a box office hit around the world, drawing fans' expectations.
Meanwhile, the Academy Awards, which will be held magnificently at the Dolby Theater in LA on March 27, was nominated for the New Zealand female director Jane Campion's "Power of Dog" award, best director, best actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), best supporting actor (Jessie Flemans), best supporting actress (Kustin Dunst), and adaptation (Jane Campion) in 12 categories. Drive My Car, directed by Japan's Hamaguchi Ryusuke, who continues the Asian film syndrome after Parasite (19, Bong Joon-ho), was also in the spotlight, nominated for major categories such as Best Picture, Director, Adapted, and International Feature Film.
