Words by Jamie Gilbert & Miri Stoneham-Bull
As the 97th Academy Awards approach, the annual debate over their relevance and status in popular culture arises once again. Whether upset with the nature of Academy membership or simply angered that their favourite film of the last twelve months hasn’t been nominated for Best Original Score (…Challengers by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), fans and critics alike love to debate the role of the Academy’s stamp of approval.
The nature of the Academy’s voting block and system have been disputed for several years now and have felt more relevant in 2025 than ever before. The key issue of the voting system is that while only members who work in individual categories are able to select the nominees, everyone can vote on the eventual winners of all categories. The imbalanced opinions of a Director of Photography and of a screenwriter end up being equally weighted when it comes to voting on Best Cinematography. Voting members are also not required to have seen every film. Ultimately, they have as much knowledge of a release as the average viewer will on the 2nd of March. After The Brutalist won three awards at the Golden Globes, including for Best Motion Picture – Drama, a Variety article noted that some Academy members “admitted they “didn’t get to it” or “didn’t finish it,” citing its demanding runtime and intense subject matter”. If a film’s run-time is enough to stop an Academy member from casting an informed vote, then should we care about what the Oscars have to say at all?
The debate of popularity over prestige is arguably the most relevant today and has dominated the previous two award cycles. Throughout each year of the Academy Awards, it’s notorious that a film ‘sweeps the Oscars’. Still, having occurred back-to-back in 2023 and 2024, the partiality raised questions of whether Academy members are voting for their favourites, following trends, or voting to create ‘fairy-tale’ outcomes. In 2023, Everything Everywhere All at Once won seven awards, an achievement mirrored by Oppenheimer in 2024. This is not to say they weren’t deserving of most of their wins, particularly for Best Picture, but the scale of their triumphs ultimately suggests a trend of popularity leading to success at the Oscars. While media traction can be credited for both their successes, each film won in intense competitive years. In recent ceremonies, we saw first-time and long-awaited wins for the likes of Christopher Nolan and Ke Huy Quan, which have since been critiqued as ‘fairy-tale’ outcomes. This year, Emilia Pérez, a film riddled with controversy and scandal due to offensive remarks from star Karla Sofia Gascon, has received 13 nominations (the same as Oppenheimer). Bookmakers and critics alike are predicting it will likely experience similar success. Whether this was determined by its filmmaking prestige, or simply its popularity amongst critics, fans or the media, the outcome will be determined in the weeks to come.
The Rise of Letterboxd
With the popularity and prestige of the Oscars scrutinised, how relevant are the awards for Gen Z cinema-goers? If the recent rise of Letterboxd, the cinephile social media, shows any clues, it’s that they don’t really care what the Academy has to say.
When the 2025 Oscar nominations were announced, movie lovers promptly opened Letterboxd, keen to see reactions from the film community. This act of turning to Letterboxd for film information has become a habitual ritual for me and my peers. The app (which launched in 2011) went viral post-pandemic, allowing users to review movies, follow friends and compile curated lists. Whilst websites such as IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes have long given movie fans the ability to review films, Letterboxd feels different. The app fosters a community where cinephilia is celebrated as fun and casual rather than pretentious. Anyone can use the app, from film nerds to your Grandad. Still, it’s Gen Z who especially adore the platform’s witty one-liners.
On Letterboxd, a particular narrative is evident: whilst Emilia Pérez is championed within the film industry bubble, your typical Letterboxd user passionately disagrees, with the lowest rating of all Oscar nominations. The incongruence between what Letterboxd users think is a good film and the Academy’s favourites is clear-cut this year. So, whose opinion can we rely on? As more users flock to Letterboxd to log their ‘recently watched’, the need for traditional practices of film critique diminishes. Ultimately, Gen Z is more likely to trust the opinions of their fellow cinephiles than an exclusive jury of elite judges. Still, reviews on Letterboxd cannot be taken as sincere gospel. Some note that the app ‘gamifies’ consumption, and prioritises humour over intellect. However, it’s clear that new patterns of film culture are emerging, and Gen Z cinephiles are making up their own minds about film prestige and popularity, leaving the Oscars, for now, negligible.