The 94th Academy Awards will air on March 27th on ABC, with the debate over the exclusion ofSpider-Man: No Way Homefrom the Best Picture category dominating most media circuits. Disapproval has already been expressed from a few prominent faces on the Oscar snub, including indie director Kevin Smith, who wasn’t pleased to see the year’s most popular film left out of consideration for the ceremony’s top prize.
Spider-Man: No Way Homehas earned critical acclaim since its December release, generating $760.5 million at the domestic box office, officially unseating 2009’sAvataras the third-highest-grossing film ever domestically. The Marvel Studios and Sony project has accumulated $1.8 billion globally, making it the sixth-highest grossing film of all time.Spider-Man: No Way Homebecame the first billion-dollar film to cross the billion mark at the global box since 2019’sStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Despite its success domestically and internationally, the film earned one nomination at the upcoming Academy Awards in the Visual Effects category.
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Smith was not satisfied with the one nomination and felt the groundbreakingSpider-Man: No Way Homedeserved more respectfor what it accomplished. In hisFatman Beyondpodcast, Smith expressed his displeasure, holding no punches back in his criticism of the Academy Awards' unpopular decision. “What the f—!” exclaimed Smith when he was made aware of the film’s omission from the Best Picture category. “They got 10 slots, they can’t give one to the biggest f—–g movie of, like, the last three years?” Smith explained that the exclusion is one of the reasons ratings have significantly dropped for the ceremony over the last couple of years.
“Man, and they’re like, ‘Why won’t anyone watch this show?’ Like f—–g make a populist choice. You got how many slots? Throw inSpider-Manfor God’s sakes; let him swing in there,” expressed Smith. “I’m not even being facetious, with as many movies as they now nominate for Best Picture….” Smith is referring to the change made in recent years around the number of films included in the category. The change was made from five nominations to ten to present a more diverse selection of films up for consideration. At the moment,Black Pantheris the only Marvel project to benominated in the Best Picture category, highlighting the continued biased perception of the superhero genre.
However, Smith’s opinion surroundingSpider-Man: No Way Homeis not singular and sits amongst others with a similar passion. Jimmy Kimmel recently expressed his frustrations around the ceremony’s unpopular decision onJimmy Kimmel Live!, highlighting the film’s growing monetary success. In addition, Kimmel was baffledNetflix’sDon’t Look Upwas given a nomination overSpider-Man: No Way Home, stating that the Meryl Streep and Leonardo DiCaprio film was in no way better than the webslinging hero’s latest adventure. Finally, Seth Rogen expressed his disinterest in the awards show itself, highlighting that people have stopped caring about the Oscars and have for a while.
The Academy looks to ease frustrations with its newly established fan-voted category. Audiences can now vote for any film from 2021 that should win the award for fan favorite on Twitter with the #OscarsFanFavorite hashtag until the voting ends on March 3rd. Understandably, some will see the award as minuscule compared to the other more regarded categories, but at leastSpider-Man: No Way Homehas a chance to be recognized for its popularity. The catch, however, is that any film from 2021 can earn votes in this category, which opens the door for disapproval ifSpider-Man: No Way Homefails to gain its deserved recognition.
