The 95th Academy Awards Ceremony: The public’s reaction to the Oscars

By Claudia Abbott

For some, it was the Hollywood highlight of the year, while others found it boring. Sunday ushered in the 95^th Academy Awards Ceremony, and whilst all the glitz and glamour wasn’t of interest to everyone, many found it a night to celebrate the achievements of their favourite actors and actresses, and applaud the winning films and documentaries.

History was made on Sunday as Michelle Yeoh won the award for Best Actress for her role in the film Everything Everywhere All At Once, becoming the first Asian woman to walk home with a Best Actress Oscar.

The film took a whopping seven awards home out of their 11 nominations, including the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, which was won by Jamie Lee Curtis.

But not everyone agreed with Curtis’ win, believing that the Oscar should have gone to one of the other actresses who was nominated for the same award.

@Autumnvelvets tweeted “Jamie Lee Curtis????? Over Angelina Bassett and Stephanie Hsu??? #Oscars”. Her tweet garnered more than 47,000 likes with hundreds of replies agreeing with it, including, @jabo_moma who said, “No offense to Jamie but Angela should have won!”

Although a lot of people finished watching the ceremonies frustrated that their favourite celebrity didn’t win, most people take the time to congratulate and honour those who did get an award.

@ZoeroseBryant tweeted: “They may not be your ‘personal picks,’ but one thing I *do* love about this year’s acting winner’s quartet at the #Oscars is how they’re all actors who have been counted out – or shut out – at various points in their careers and came back against the odds to come out on top.”

This year marks 70 years since the awards show was first televised, and despite all the trending social media posts relating to the Oscars, the viewership for the event has plummeted.

Data from Statista shows that in the year 2000, the viewership for the Academy Awards was at an incredible high of 46.33 million. However, then dropped to a record breaking low of 10.4 million for the 2021 ceremony and “marked a drop-off of over 50 percent from the 2020 audience”. Whilst views increased to 15. 36 million last year it is still drastically lower than previous years.  

When asked if she could name any of the winners or nominees from the awards show last night, London Metropolitan University student Sylvia, 22 said, “I have got no idea.” People seem to be less interested in the famous awards show as the years go on.