Oscar Special: why do we need to talk about the democratization of cinema?

The Oscar ceremony awarded the best films of the season on Sunday 10th. Despite having the greatest audience in four years, an average of 19 million viewers, most of the public didn’t watch half of the nominees for best picture. Either because of the complex language used in the films, which many people are not used to, or the lack of accessibility of these movies in the mainstream media. 

Oppenheimer and Barbie showed us that Oscar nominees can be as popular as any blockbusters and that the public is interested in having a different experience in cinema instead of always watching the same stereotyped productions. However, because of the low budget these films have, they face the problem of being shown in limited sessions and restricted cinemas. You’ll probably only find these films in capitals or metropolitan cities and sometimes at film festivals, which are not a frequent event during the year. Otherwise, movies like Killers of the Flower Moon are available on Prime Video – but not on the usual catalog. You’ll have to pay R$65 to watch it – it’s more than two entrances for students at a cinema.

The Academy had already decided who were the winners when the films arrived in Brazil. While the Oscar nominees were released earlier in November in North America and in Europe, in Brazil, they were in theaters for a short period during February, close to the ceremonies. Even though that date coincided with Movie Week, responsible for making tickets cheaper, not every cinema has adopted the promo prices, and not every cinema that has adopted it exhibited the Oscar nominees. 

And now that the award period has ended, most of these films are out of the picture and not easily found on streaming. However, the interest to watch it is not over. This is the first time in four years that a prize like Oscar gets so many viewers and commentators all around the planet. Since Parasite won the Oscars for Best Movie and the pandemic had not yet traumatized the world, the Oscar ceremony didn’t surpass 20 million viewers throughout the event.  

Especially in this edition, films were more accessible to the mainstream addressing everyday issues and generating identification with their narratives. But not all of them. The more people understand the message of a story, the more society develops a critical sense and begins to understand more elaborate scripts and reflect on a work.

That’s not the case with Scorsese’s or Nolan’s movies. Both Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon have extremely important topics in the debate, but with such complicated language and so long durations. They are pieces of art, no doubt, but not everyone will watch them and understand the conversation that should be for everyone. Cinematography is responsible for changing people’s world view that’s why it should be a democratic art.

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The article above was edited by Clarissa Palácio.

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