Whoopi Goldberg and ‘The View’ Co-Hosts Slam Fan-Favorite Oscar Categories, Prefer ‘Snooty’ Awards

Samantha Bergeson
·4 min read
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“The View” co-hosts just cast their vote against the Academy.

During the February 15 episode of “The View,” hosts Ana Navarro, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, and Sara Haines shared their disdain for the new 2022 Oscars fan voting categories. Ahead of the 94th Academy Awards on March 27, the Academy announced that, starting February 14, fans can cast their votes for two new special categories: #OscarsCheersMoment and #OscarsFanFavorite. Twitter users must tweet using either hashtag, and votes will count for any film, even if it was not nominated at the Oscars.

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Academy Award winner Goldberg explained that “moviegoers go to the movies for a different reason than Oscar voters do,” and the awards show is an industry award, not up to audiences. Goldberg would know: in addition to winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her turn in “Ghost,” she has also hosted the show itself four times.

“We are voting on our particular knowledge. So, Best Actor comes from the group of actors who are voting. Best Cinematographer is coming from the cinematographers,” Goldberg said. “People also believe that we are snooty, because we pick movies, sometimes, that people don’t know about. It’s because of their excellence — their excellence in any given category. That’s what it is, that’s why we do that. We don’t ask the audience to do that because who’s got the attention span?”

Co-host Navarro cited the issues with social media voting as a whole. “I don’t like it, because I think you’re gonna have some big studio hiring some troll farm in Russia or god knows where, and people are gonna be voting over and over again,” Navarro said. “It’s gonna be all those bots. I just think polls — Twitter polls, online polls — are too easily manipulated.”

Navarro continued, “I also kind of like the snootiness of the Oscars, and recognizing cinematography and excellence, right? There’s a bunch of movies — well, you know, I have the pop culture knowledge of a radish. But there’s a bunch of movies that I watch because they won Oscars.”

Haines added that the Academy’s “snobbery of knowing what makes a great, artistic film” informs society, and Behar pointed to other awards shows that already are up to fans.

“We already have the People’s Choice Awards, where everybody weighs in on it, people on Twitter and what have you. I think it’s enough,” Behar said. “I agree with [Ana Navarro], because I think the people who vote now, they are — I think — experts at these. They know what they’re doing. They watch the movies, they take pains to vote.”

The Academy previously announced in 2018 that there was going to be a Best Popular Film category to curb then-historic low ratings. The category was later scrapped before the 91st Academy Awards, citing the need to postpone the addition to “examine and seek additional input regarding the new category” following backlash.

This year’s new voting period for #OscarsFanFavorite runs from February 14 through March 3, and the winning film will then be revealed during the Academy Awards broadcast. Additionally, three Twitter users who cast their votes will be selected for an all-expenses paid trip to Los Angeles to present an Oscar at next year’s award show.

The #OscarsCheersMoment is for the”most cheer-worthy movie moment” of 2021, and a selected voter can win a year of free movies. The official rules can be read here.

For the 2022 Oscars, the hashtag social media campaign could breathe new life into the Academy recognition for record-breaking blockbuster “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which was snubbed by the Best Picture category.

Jimmy Kimmel shared his disbelief at the lack of “Spider-Man” nominations, aside from Best Visual Effects, saying during the February 8 episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that “Spider-Man” was a “great movie” that deserves recognition.

“How did [‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’] not get one of the 10 nominations for best picture?” Kimmel said. “Forget the fact that the movie made $750 million [in the U.S.] and is still going. This was a great movie. It wasn’t in the top 10 best movies of the year? There were three Spider-Men in it. You’re telling me ‘Don’t Look Up’ was better than ‘Spider-Man?’ It most certainly was not.”

Kimmel added, “Even if you go by the critics reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, ‘Don’t Look Up’ got a 46 percent and ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ has 90 percent. For God’s sake, ‘Jackass Forever’ has an 89 percent. Why do Best Picture nominees have to be serious? When did that become a prerequisite for getting nominated for an Academy Award?”

Kimmel continued to slam Adam McKay’s Netflix film “Don’t Look Up,” saying, “You want to know what happened? Voters looked at the list and saw the names Leonardo DiCaprio and Meryl Streep and they checked the box and then they put their kids in the car and went to see the movie ‘Spider-Man.’ And they loved it! But they didn’t vote for it.”

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