The Oscars are only a week away, and if you’ve been getting your predictions together before the big night, then I’m afraid to tell you that you might have been beaten to the punchline. Not by a specific person per se, but rather by The Academy themselves.
Yep, someone at the Academy Awards has tweeted out predictions for their own awards ceremony, which doesn’t seem like the smartest thing in the entire world, but here we are. The predictions aren’t for every category, but all the big ones are covered. The reaction in the comments section has been almost 100% focussed on the fact that The Academy predicts Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is going to take out Best Picture.
The problem is that Parasite is almost certainly not going to win Best Picture. Of course there’s always room to be surprised, but Sportsbet currently has the odds of it taking out the award at $4.33.
The tweet has been up for a couple of hours at this point, and you’d think that if someone had accidentally released the winners of the Oscars via a prediction, the damage control would be a bit quicker. So here’s my theory:
Not only is this a super smart PR move to get people talking, but it’s an attempt to keep Asian audiences and other Parasite fans engaged. Every year there’s an #OscarsSoWhite scandal, and this year was no different. After Joaquin Phoenix called out a room of white execs at the BAFTAs for contributing to the systemic racism that leads us to have awards ceremonies that are incredibly white, it’s a very topical conversation.
I’d like to think I’m wrong, and that the reality is that some poor intern just hit Tweet when they shouldn’t have. But I’m suspicious.
Besides, whatever movie ends up winning, we all know who the real winner should be.
Always be in the loop with our snackable podcast breaking the biggest story of the day. Subscribe to It’s Been A Big Day For… on your favourite podcast app.