The Oscars, a film award show broadcasted April 25, has faced various challenges because of Covid-19, including less socialization and less of a buzz around nominations.

During the start of the pandemic, people turned to TV and movies for entertainment, over time, the drive to watch new movies has decreased. Instead of watching new movies, people turned to their favorite comfort movies, especially with the decrease of blockbuster action movies. 

Although movies haven’t been coming out as frequently, the amount of diversity has greatly increased. Actors like Riz Ahmed in The Sound of Metal and Steven Yeun in Minari have both broken records for being the first Muslim and Asian American to be nominated for best actor. 

Duncan White, a Conard alum and the first assistant director of the Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, a film that’s nominated for an Oscar in best adapted screenplay and best supporting actress, claims that the Oscars this year were “very disconnected and didn’t feel like a community experience.” 

Award shows like the Golden Globes, Grammy’s and SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Awards became less exciting and something that people only cared about after the award show aired. Justis Bolding, a SAG member said that, “this year, I would say there’s a 50-50 chance I watch the Oscars.” 

This sentiment was also shared by a Hall student who claims that they “don’t really care about any of them (films). Not a single one of these movies would’ve been nominated for best picture last year. Pretty poor year for movies. Not surprising if you take into account the pandemic.”

Teens still have some interest in which films they want to win: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Promising Young Woman and Sound of Metal. Even though students may have wanted these movies to win, 47.4 percent said that they wouldn’t watch the award show this year and 63.2 percent of students said that they’ve watched the award show before. 

One of the major differences this year is the rise of streaming services because of the pivot film production companies had to make in order to appeal to viewers wanting to stay home. Despite Netflix’s rising popularity, actors and directors have felt differently towards the company because of the amount of money they’ve made off of the movies. 

Actors like Justis Bolding, someone who’s acted for ABC Television and knows people who have worked with Netflix before, claims that “(she doesn’t) trust Netflix, I think they found a way to do something cheaper than a lot of other companies and one of the things they do cheaper is pay talent.” 

Justis makes another point that because so much content is coming out all the time, people who never worked before can work and that’s amazing. This can be seen in the Oscar nominations this year because streaming services, like Netflix, have created a list of nominated movies that have been produced and are up for awards. 

The Oscars aired April 25, 2021, 8 PM EDT on ABC and was streamed on YouTube TV and Hulu Live TV. Full list of nominations and the winners of each category can be found on the 2021 Oscar Ceremony website.