Last week, The Academy released the list of nominees who will be eligible to win an Oscar at the 94th Academy Awards ceremony. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune managed to earn 10 nominations, including Best Picture. The sci-fi film was only outnumbered by Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, which earned 12 total nominations. Now, Dune and The Power of the Dog could receive a different honor at the ceremony.
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The Academy has announced that this year, fans have the ability to select films that will be honored at the 94th ceremony. Fans can cast their votes for two different awards: Favorite Movie of 2021 and Most Cheer-Worthy Movie Moment Ever. To cast their votes, fans can tweet their nominations using the hashtags #OscarsFanFavorite and #OscarsCheerMoment or fill out the forms found on oscarsfanfavorite.com. Voting in both categories will end on March 3 and the winners will be honored at the ceremony at the end of the month. Each day, fans can tweet to cast their vote up to 20 times.
As fans cast their votes in each category, they will be entered for the chance to win huge prizes. In casting ballots for their Favorite Movie of 2021, fans will be entered into a chance to win a trip to the 95th Academy Awards in 2023. Those who will cast their votes for Most Cheer-Worthy Movie Moment will have a chance to receive a full year of free movie tickets at a theater of their choosing, a year of streaming subscriptions, and a number of prizes from the Academy Museum Store, which racks up to a retail value of nearly $1,000.
These categories give fans the chance to recognize films that they feel members of The Academy may have overlooked or snubbed in their nominations. This gives films like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, The Suicide Squad, House of Gucci, Eternals, and hundreds of others the chance to be recognized at the prestigious ceremony. This addition to the Oscars lineup may help boost ratings for the ceremony and honor the voice of the fans who help make this ceremony possible each year.
Even though fans cannot determine who will take home the prestigious awards, any film or actor on the receiving end of one of these fan-voted awards may find that the honor weighs more. The knowledge that fans have rallied behind their work to the point where they have been honored at a ceremony that they may not have been able to attend, may change the landscape of the Academy Awards for the next several years.
The Oscars will air on ABC on March 27, 2022.
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Source: The Hollywood Reporter
