Nearly 20 years ago at the 78th Oscars, “Crash” took home Best Picture over “Brokeback Mountain.” Both films were controversial. “Crash” tells a story about race through various perspectives but was criticized for its tone-deaf handling of the issue. “Brokeback Mountain” was mocked for depicting a homosexual relationship.

“Brokeback Mountain” seemed to be the logical and praiseworthy choice, yet The Academy of Motion, Pictures, Arts and Sciences, who present the Oscars, chose “Crash” in 2006, shocking critics and audiences alike. 

For many, this marked the academy as unreliable and it was hard to believe that the most prestigious award in the most prestigious award show would go to what is largely considered a less-deserving film. A poll ten years later found that the academy’s members regretted this decision and that if released today, “Brokeback Mountain” would have won. 

Yet, the nominations for this year’s upcoming Oscars seemed doomed to uphold the academy’s out-of-touch reputation. 

“Emilia Perez” received 13 nominations, more than “Silence of the Lambs,” “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” and just about every other movie ever nominated, drawing heavy backlash.

“Emilia Perez” is a musical about a cartel boss transitioning and beginning a new life as a woman with the help of a powerful lawyer. Despite the staggering number of nominations, the movie currently sits with a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes with many, myself included, wondering why the film deserves such a high honor.

The musical numbers are stiff and unimpressive, the cinematography focuses on the least appealing aesthetics, the characters are flat, their ambitions confusing and worst of all, it’s boring. How does a film like this receive not one, but 13 nominations?

The academy is separated into sections: actors, directors, editors, cinematographers, etc… with over 10,000 members across 18 categories. A member must meet requirements in their specific branch to qualify. For example, to join the actor’s branch, one must have either been nominated for an acting Oscar, been in three “high caliber” films or made an “outstanding” contribution to acting. 

This qualifies them to regulate which actor deserves to be nominated for an Oscar. It makes sense in theory; the academy drafts the most experienced artists across the film industry to make these decisions. But in practice, it does not always reflect cinematic talent. 

Part of the issue is that members are not required to watch the films they will be voting on. In order to be considered for an Oscar, the studio must submit the film to the academy, but the members who determine what will be nominated from these submissions, do not have to watch any of them. 

While members are “asked” to watch as many of the films as they can, there is no standard they are held to and no way to ensure that they are qualified to vote on this year’s selection. Hypothetically, a member could randomly select nominations and the academy would have no way of knowing. 

However, I understand that there are hundreds of films submitted every year. It would be incredibly difficult for anyone to truly consider every film, so expecting all 10,000 members to do it is a bit of an overreach. Yet, the academy does not even require its members to watch all of the nominations. 

From the films submitted, around 5-10 move on to the next round to be considered for an Oscar. The members then vote on the films selected and the one with the most votes wins.

The members do not have to watch all the films in their category to vote on which is most worthy of the award. It means that a film could potentially lose an Oscar not based on merit, but because the most qualified people in Hollywood could not take the time to watch it.

Even though an Oscar is supposed to be the most prestigious award a filmmaker can win, the voting process feels lazy. People spend years working just to break into the academy’s eyeline, but the members can turn their noses up because they did not feel like watching. 

It no longer reflects an achievement in cinema, but rather whatever the academy felt was worth their time.