Oscars to recognize 'fan-favorite film' winner at 94th Academy Awards after public vote

The Academy is giving a voice to the people with a new initiative that will highlight the best film of the year as determined by a public vote.

AMPAS announced Monday that beginning now through March 3, audiences can vote on Twitter for their favorite movie of 2021 using the #OscarsFanFavorite hashtag or by casting a ballot on the Oscars Fan Favorite website. The winning fan-favorite film of the year will then be announced live during the 2022 Oscars ceremony.

Select participants also stand to win a trip to the 95th Oscars in 2023, where they'll potentially present an actual trophy during the broadcast.

In addition to the fan-favorite vote, the Academy is asking audiences to use Twitter to vote for an #OscarsCheerMoment spotlighting moments that made them "erupt into cheers in theaters" while watching. Five winners selected from the pool of participants will win a package, including tickets to a full year of free movies in a theater of their choice, streaming subscriptions, and exclusive items from the Academy Museum shop.

Amid declining ratings for recent ceremonies, the move recalls the Academy's past attempt to pull more general audiences into the telecast with the short-lived proposal to add an Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film to its competitive roster. After the category's announcement in 2018, plans to implement it were postponed by the end of the year, as the Academy needed "further study" into such a measure before executing it.

Many pundits noted that the Oscars included a fairly minimal number of box office hits among its top nominee categories this year, with Best Picture nominee Dune being the category's only nominee to cross the $100 million domestic mark (feeding into its $400 million global haul) among a host of streaming titles (Don't Look Up, The Power of the Dog) and specialty theatrical titles like Drive My Car ($1.2 million domestically) and Licorice Pizza (just under $14 million).

"We're thrilled to partner with Twitter to help build an engaged and excited digital audience leading up to this year's ceremony," said Meryl Johnson, Digital Marketing VP at the Academy, of the group's newest fan-favorite initiative. "The Oscars are an opportunity to bring people around the world together through their shared movie love, and through these activations social media users around the world now have more opportunities to engage with the show in real-time, find a community and be a part of the experience in ways they've never been able to before."

The 2022 Oscars air Sunday, March 27 on ABC. See the full list of nominees here.

Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring Oscars analysis, exclusive interviews, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's movies and performances.

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