The necessary shift from in-person film festivals to digital only to reduced capacity hybrid iterations as a result of Covid-19 had an inevitable impact on how we define and measure Oscar buzz. That on-the-ground atmosphere, the visceral reactions, those impassioned afterparty chats, the things many prognosticators would use to predict a winner or a loser, were replaced with … tweets.
Last year pushed us closer to some semblance of normality but this year felt like the real thing again, with bigger audiences and bigger movies, and so the race should feel that much bigger itself. But it’s one that is so far proving difficult to get a handle on, some sure bets but more question marks, most frontrunners yet to fully emerge.
