Will the 2023 Oscars have a Fan Favorite film?

Throughout the Oscars’ 95-year history, the categories presented have remained largely the same, with some new categories being added, and others merged or renamed.

Beginning in 2018, low viewership of the award show throughout the years spawned two new endeavors by the Academy to bring the viewership to what it used to be.

The first was the Best Popular Film award, which was quickly scrapped. But in 2022, the Oscars saw the first ever Fan Favorite award, where Twitter users voted for their favorite film of the year, with Zack Snyder’s ‘Army of the Dead’ becoming the first winner of the category. The category does not give the film an Oscar but gives the film a nod for being a fan favorite.

The Oscar’s attempts to increase viewership

In 2018, the Academy attempted to create a Best Popular Film category, which would have given the winning film an Oscar and would be based on films that were the most popular and not necessarily of the best quality.

The category was heavily criticized for “looking down” on films that, for whatever reason, weren’t considered “good enough” to be nominated for Best Picture, and also, for not taking into consideration the voting done by Academy members who have first-hand experience of the work that goes into the Oscar categories.

The category was quickly scrapped.

Is there a Fan Favorite award at the 2023 Oscars?

So far, there has been no word that the category will be making a reappearance in 2023, and no official sources have said anything about the category for Sunday’s award show, making the Twitter-voted category a one-time thing.

There was also an Oscar’s Cheer Moment category, where fans voted for their favorite movie moment. Again, Snyder won for a sequence in his film ‘Jack Snyder’s Justice League’, where the Flash joins the Speed Force.

Fans voted by tagging any movie, regardless of whether it was nominated for an Oscar or not, and adding the hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite.

In addition to seeing their favorite film win either of the two categories, three voting fans were also randomly selected to win an all-expenses paid trip to Los Angeles to present an Oscar at the 2023 Oscars.

One possible reason for the cancellation of the Twitter voted categories may be that the voting was apparently rigged, with Zack Snyder fans reportedly using bots to “cast thousands of votes”.