Confused About The Fan Favorite Awards At The Oscars? Here’s What You Need To Know

During the 2022 Oscars, multiple Fan Favorite Awards were announced. But with nods going to titles like the widely panned Cinderella remake and the relatively unknown Minamata, you may be wondering — are the Fan Favorite Awards even real Oscars? The answer is no, but here’s why they were included in the show.

What Are The Oscar Fan Favorite Awards?

In February, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the addition of two new quasi-categories: the Oscars Fan Favorite and Oscars Cheer Moment. Unlike other awards (Best Picture or Best Actress, for example), these aren’t decided by Academy voters, but by fans. Through early March, participants were able to cast their vote via Twitter or OscarsFanFavorite.com (in doing so, they also had the chance to win trip to the Oscars in 2023, or a year of free movies with their submission). “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,” Meryl Johnson, Digital Marketing VP at the Academy, explained to Entertainment Weekly.

The Academy made other major changes this year, too, like not including eight categories (such as Best Makeup and Hairstyling and Best Original Score) in the live telecast. According to Variety, they did so “to increase viewer engagement and keep the show vital, kinetic, and relevant.”

Who Won The Oscar Fan Favorite Awards?

At least the Fan Favorite Awards helped viewers celebrate movies and moments they truly loved, right? Well... kind of. While the inclusion of certain films felt like a given — hi, critical and audience fave Spider-Man: No Way Home — other surprising titles made the Top 5, like Cinderella (which wasn’t well received by critics or viewers) and Minamata (which there’s a good chance you’ve never even heard of). Netflix films tick, tick... BOOM! and Army of the Dead rounded out the Fan Favorite winners.

According to Variety, “highly organized” fan campaigns can explain some of the more surprising winners of the evening’s inaugural award. The magazine cited “near-identical” (i.e. spammy) tweets rallying behind several of the films.

What Is Minamata?

Now that you know how Minamata made the list, you may be wondering... uh, what is it? The magazine said “barely any human person has seen” the film about a photojournalist (Johnny Depp) in 1970s Japan — allegedly because the studio was trying to “bury” the title amidst the allegations of abuse against Depp by his ex-wife Amber Heard (Depp has denied her claims). According to Variety, the actor’s “extremely online fandom ... rallied to support the actor throughout his career downswing” by casting a lot of votes for Minamata in his favor.