How the Oscars became the biggest film awards on Earth

Why are the Oscars watched eagerly across the world? Is it a result of rapid globalisation or something more? We explain.

But first: why did the Academy Awards become a thing in the first place?

The Oscars weren’t always the big thing they are now, at least not when they were conceptualised.

According to film historian David Thomson, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded, by media firm Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s head Louis B Mayer in 1927, it was tasked with promoting a “positive” image of Hollywood, frequently beset by scandals. The Academy decided to come up with a way to honour the best in the industry.

The first ceremony in 1927 lasted just 15 minutes, according to The New York Times, and was not broadcast on any mass medium. The Awards were first aired on radio in 1930, and began to be telecast on TV only in 1953. Moreover, the winners were announced three months in advance. The sealed envelope system, where the winners are revealed only on stage, would begin much later in 1941.

It was only in 1953, when the awards were first televised, that honouring the best in entertainment became a significant annual event in itself. Dave Karger, a film expert who specialises in the Oscars, told The New York Times, “I think once the Academy Awards became a spectacle and became a televised event, that’s when they became even more important.”

What explains the Oscars hype?

The Oscars are seen as the pinnacle of peer recognition in Hollywood. The nomination process is decided on by members of the Academy— according to the Oscars website, membership is “limited to film artists working in the production of theatrically-released motion pictures. The Academy has 18 branches, for the crafts ranging from Actors to Writers, and the Members-at-Large (Artists’ Representatives) category, for individuals who work in motion pictures as a representative.”

Moreover, membership is possible only through sponsorship, and not application. What this means is that a potential candidate must be sponsored by two members from the same branch into which he/she/they want to be admitted. (Side note: Oscar nominees are automatically considered for membership, and do not need to undergo the sponsorship process).

Contrast this with another American award that is often seen as the ‘bellwether’ for Oscar predictions, the Golden Globes, which are decided based on voting by around 300 entertainment journalists from across the world— but only since 2023. Before that, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association decided the winners, a group comprising select entertainment journalists across the world who reported on Hollywood.

This group came under increasing scrutiny and criticism over its small size of voting members (especially when compared with the Oscars, where members from across branches can vote for the final winners in different categories), the voting tactics employed by them, and their public flattery of celebrities.

Even more importantly, though, winning an Oscar means a career boost for everyone involved. In an interview with The Guardian in 2007, actor Matt Damon described his Oscar win for 1997’s Good Will Hunting as “surreal”.

“People talk about ‘overnight success’, but I’d been working professionally for 11 years by the time Good Will Hunting hit. Still, the change is nearly indescribable — going from total obscurity to walking down a street in New York and having everybody turn and look; to feel the temperature of a room change when I walked in.”

Now, with the advent of streaming and generally a greater awareness of films from different corners of the world, an Oscar could potentially put the spotlight on an entire industry. Take for example the Korean film Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-ho, which won four Oscars, including the coveted Best Picture, at the 92nd Academy Awards. This catapulted Korean cinema into global film discourse and triggered conversations about the need to diversify award shows.

But are the Oscars even all that great?

The opinions vary. While there is still sustained interest in who wins an Oscar (and why), the sheen seems to have come off in the past few years due to several controversies.

First, there was the #MeToo saga of 2017, where several actresses accused film producer Harvey Weinstein of varying degrees of sexual assault. Weinstein, the co-founder of Miramax and the Weinstein Company, had seemingly perfected the art of Oscar campaigning, establishing his companies as the leading producers of award-winning, “quality” art.

However, Weinstein did not just focus on the cinematic aspect of his products. He was known to spread rumours about rival films, impacting their chances at the award. He would also, while staying within academy guidelines, woo voters as much as possible.

Talking to The Washington Post, American film industry analyst Stephen Follows said that movies nominated for the Academy Awards are not necessarily the “best ones” released in the year. “The more I look at the data or hear stories and talk to people, the more I realise it’s like saying the political leaders in charge are the best people,” he said.

In 2015, the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag started trending after the Oscar nominations were announced: all 20 nominations in acting categories went to white performers. The next year, only one nominee in the major acting and directing categories was not a white individual.

In 2020, following years of accusations of racial discrimination, the Academy announced it would develop new “representation and inclusion standards” for the awards. It also said that “unconscious bias training” would be made mandatory for most of the senior Academy staff, and offered to its nearly 9,000 members.