The hosts of “The View” aren’t all that thrilled about the Oscars’ newest category. For them, voting should be left to the experts.
On Monday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that this year’s show will feature a fan vote and sweepstakes for viewers to pick their favorite film of the year. Movie fans can weigh in on Twitter, using the hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite to vote for their favorite film of the year, and the film receiving the most votes will be recognized during the ABC telecast on March 27.
“I don’t like it,” Ana Navarro said simply. “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. It’s gonna be all those bots. I just think polls — Twitter polls, online polls — are too easily manipulated.”
Navarro added that she actually enjoys the exclusivity of Oscar voting, as it prioritizes movies on her watchlist.
“I also kind of like the snootiness of the Oscars, and recognizing cinematography and excellence, right?” she continued. “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.”
Host Sara Haines agreed that she likes the “snobbery of knowing what makes a great, artistic film,” while Joy Behar pointed out that there are already awards show that take fans’ opinions into account.
“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], 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 women then turned to moderator Whoopi Goldberg to shed some light on that expertise, as she’s among the Academy members who vote.
“Moviegoers go to the movies for a different reason than Oscar voters do,” Whoopi explained. “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.”
When Sunny Hostin questioned whether the new fan-favorite category stems from the show’s steady decline in viewership, Whoopi conceded that that was a partial reason. But she maintained that Oscar voters know what they’re looking for, and there’s a reason why the audience isn’t typically asked for input.
“People also believe that we are snooty, because we pick movies, sometimes, that people don’t know about,” Whoopi continued. “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?”