Every year, millions of people tune in to watch the Oscars, a prestigious awards show and a celebration of all people within the film industry, and all of the amazing movies produced. But are they really best?

The Oscars are held annually in March and suddenly, the entire movie business is buzzing again. There is a total of twenty three categories, each containing five nominees (apart from Best Picture, which contains 10). Everybody wants to win. It's prestigious enough to see 'Academy Award Winner' in a preview for a movie, but who doesn't want to go the whole nine yards and win, right?

There are plenty of great films released throughout the year, and all of the nominees are good in their own right. However, these are often not to the taste of the public, especially teen viewers. Over the years, we've come to realise that critics have most definitely developed a taste for the more pretentious side of things.

In 2019, the box office was hit with a huge summer blockbuster; Avengers: Endgame. The end of a saga that had been culminating for fifteen years, quickly becoming one of the highest grossing movies of all time. It was huge, being constantly praised online by fans for being such an epic.

It was not, on the other hand, critically acclaimed. What easily could've been nominated for Best Picture was instead only nominated for Best Visual Effects (not that this isn't a feat in itself). This begs a question...

What Makes A Movie Oscar-worthy?

The honest answer to that? Impossible to say. We can only guess based on previous winners.

One option is movies having a significant impact on the industry, for example Ryan Coogler's 'Black Panther' was nominated. It had a large cultural impact for being the first superhero movie with a predominantly black cast and crew. It took home three Oscars; Best Production Design, Best Costume Design and Best Original Score.

Other Oscar winners are... Well, weird.

Natalie Portman took home an Oscar for her performance as Nina Sayers in Black Swan, a movie about a struggling ballerina driving herself insane for perfection in a role. Portman's performance was definitely great, but the movie itself was a little odd. It focuses on the trope of the obsessed artist, Nina being desperate to land the part of the Black Swan.

And when she does, she embraces it. Becomes it. And madness ensues. Portman was praised for the role, but some people claimed that she was far too over the top, her "fake innocence leaving the cringing". The movie also left viewers questioning "what on earth did I just watch?" or "well... Where was the ending?". Not exactly what would be considered an amazing film if there was no resolution.

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Controversy in 2025

The 2025 Oscars resulted in a large controversy with the winner of Best Actor. Adrien Brody took home the award for his role in 'The Brutalist'. Another outstanding performance, however it came to people's attention that Brody's accent in the movie was actually produced by AI.

This led to people asking if it was really a fair win. What if Brody didn't use AI? Would the movie's integrity be lost? Would it be better? We'll never know, but what we do know is that fans were unhappy about it. Many claimed that Sebastian Stan should've won for his role as Donald Trump in 'The Apprentice', a truly disturbing look into the mind of one of the world's most famous people. Stan executes this dark task eerily well, perfecting Trump's mannerisms and way of speech in a way that wasn't expected of the Marvel star.

Speculation started online quickly that the only reason that Stan didn't win was the political implications. The Apprentice was not exactly the most glamorous portrayal of Trump, and it influenced people's opinions on the president heavily. This led to people asking if the Academy were scared of a political controversy. Others claimed that if Stan had won, it would've led to alienation within the country dependent on political views.

Our Views On Oscar Winners

As teenagers, these movies aren't often publicised to us properly. Last year, Anora starring Mikey Madison won Best Picture. Now, I consider myself to be a film fan, but when I saw this I was heavily confused.

Anora? What's that? It's a movie about a young woman in Brooklyn who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch, leading to chaos. It's also rated 18. Meaning that most of us wouldn't be able to watch it, even if we wanted to. Other nominees were also rated 18, and those that weren't heavily focused on themes of religion, race and sexuality.

How Does This Influence Our Movie Interest?

The praise for these movies that we quite honestly don't care about is leading to a decline in intrigue for movies. How many teens are going to wan to work in the film industry when the movies that are impactful for them aren't rewarded? Or when their favourite actors aren't even nominated?

As time goes on, and these pretentious movies continue to win, our interest is decreasing. An aspiring actress might say "I love acting, but do I really need to act in something I don't find interesting?". The winners are honestly pretty predictable nowadays, leaving us unexcited to see what's winning.

What Should We Do?

My only advice would be to keep working at what you want to do. If you want to act in a certain thing, or write, or direct? Go for it!

Who cares if it's not the norm for an award winner? You never know, maybe you could be the one to invent the new norm. While researching for this, I listened to Sebastian Stan talking about his role in The Apprentice, and why he chose to be a part of the project. He gave one of my new favourite pieces of advice ever "Take risks.". It's simple and direct. Life's too short, so if you want to do something, do it. Make a difference.

So.. Should the system be changed? Should the public be able to vote on who wins an Oscar?