Whenever the Oscars roll around each year, I’ve always heard people debating if the winners are actually accurate, or just biased. It can be hard to deduce the truth since so many people are biased towards their favorite movies, so they may call a number of categories rigged if one loses. However, this also goes for the people deciding which movies should win each category. They could be biased towards one director, looking at their work as a whole and not the one film, or maybe a film is deemed not serious enough due to its humor or if it’s animated. 

Whether or not a movie wins a category is entirely up to the Academy members, so we know they are actually taking the votes of others into account. However, this doesn’t mean the members don’t have a bias. While some films have an intended audience to connect with, the Academy members don’t fit every demographic. For example, in 2022 81% of voters were white and 67% were male. This can make it difficult for movies made for other demographics to win, since the members just wouldn’t understand them.

To get a second opinion, I interviewed freshman Panché Hernaiz. “I don’t think they’re exactly rigged, but practically all the voters have a cohesive bias, I mean, there are some films that definitely didn’t deserve an award. “

The actual system the Oscars use isn’t rigged in anyone’s favor, but the lack of variation in voters can drastically boost films the general public don’t find appealing. While this bias can seem unimportant, it buries films that could be great and boosts mediocre, repetitive ones.