Never underestimate the scope of fandom. That’s a lesson the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is currently learning, if we’re to believe a report from Deadline last week. The trade said that while most assumed a popular comic book movie like Spider-Man: No Way Home or Zack Snyder’s Justice League, both of which have rabid online followings, would easily take the crown in the newly announced Oscars Fan Favorite category (as probably intended), the film leading at the end of last week was actually Amazon’s Cinderella.
Yes. Cinderella. Starring pop star Camila Cabello, Billy Porter, Idina Menzel, Pierce Brosnan, and others, it’s a film which Sony, the studio behind No Way Home, sold to Amazon Studios back in May of last year. According to the report, fans of Cabello “were simply flooding the Academy’s Fan Fave site” last week giving it more momentum, and votes, than any other film. Oh, and it gets worse. Johnny Depp’s fans did the same thing. Yes, Deadline also reports that fans of the troubled actor have also been voting for a film called Minamata which got a small Oscar qualifying release last year and was subsequently ignored by the Academy. “Let’s do it for Johnny,” people are supposedly tweeting.
To be fair here, Deadline’s report came out on Friday, February 18, before the long weekend, and it’s not clear where, specifically, the site got its data. So this could just be a expertly placed piece of public relations to encourage fans of Spider-Man and Superman to continue voting their hearts out. But if enough fans of Camila Cabello do, in fact, outvote superhero fans I think that’s great—it’s the perfect reminder that if you come up with a stupid idea odds are it will not usually work out in the way you’d hope.
Voting for the Oscar Fan Favorite continues through the beginning of March and you can vote, and read more, on the official site.
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