As we await next year’s Oscars and nominees, I’ve been thinking about past winners — especially the 2023 awards season in which two actors, Ke Huy Quan and Brendan Fraser, made major Hollywood comebacks with Oscars in hand, and Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress. The entire “Everything Everywhere All At Once” cast and crew swept that year’s award season, with much of their campaign gaining internet buzz due to the movie’s significance resonating with the Asian American community. One outlier in their success, however, was Jamie Lee Curtis’ first Oscar win, which many referred to as a ‘legacy Oscar.’ This prompted me to think more about how awards campaigns work — and whether some winners truly ‘deserve’ these so-called ‘legacy Oscars,’ or whether they should stop being handed out altogether.
A ‘legacy Oscar’ is an informal term given to an actor who receives an award not by the merit of their performance but because of their long career in the industry, under the justification that their win is ‘long overdue.’
It isn’t hard to see why this label was applied to Curtis’ win. She appeared onscreen for only 17 minutes — considerably less time than many of her fellow castmates. Stephanie Hsu, who was also nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category, had a much more dominant presence throughout the film. Of course, it is hard for someone outside the industry to determine who ‘deserves’ a nomination or win. However, there is more to be said about what it reveals about how the industry operates and whether the Oscars are truly merit-based.
I’ve found there are more factors contributing to the success of an Oscar campaign than I initially thought. I’ve always assumed Academy voters just picked the strongest performance or film in a given category. While that may still be somewhat true, there is so much more that goes on beyond the screen. Films heavily rely on promotions, including ads and behind-the-scenes lobbying, to gain visibility.
Awards campaigns are often run by professional strategists. Decisions such as when and where a film premieres are influenced by how the awards timeline is expected to unfold. Studios typically fund these campaigns, which can cost anywhere from $3 million to $10 million. Top campaign strategists can earn tens of thousands of dollars for their efforts and may even receive bonuses if their films do well during awards season.
Successful Oscar campaigns usually center on a narrative developed through press junkets involving the actors or filmmakers. This is evident in Quan’s 2023 campaign. Much of the press coverage surrounding his nomination and success focused on “Everything Everywhere All At Once” as his big Hollywood comeback after his ’80s child-star fame and the struggles he endured in the industry as an Asian American actor. While his performance in the film was outstanding, his campaign definitely contributed to the momentum that led to his Oscar success.
Presumably, the performance and the film itself must be outstanding as well. However, using Fraser’s Oscar win for “The Whale” as an example, we can see how personal narratives can sometimes trump critics’ opinions. Although “The Whale” received mixed reviews from critics, Fraser’s campaign in 2023 piggybacked on his personal story, primarily as much of the press surrounding him revolved around his comeback into Hollywood after his struggles during the height of his career, as well as the allegations that he was groped by a former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. His narrative is undeniably touching and helped sway public opinion, but should that really matter more than the film’s actual reception?
The Oscars, Golden Globes and other major awards are supposed to be the highlights of people’s careers. These highly coveted awards celebrate the year’s films and recognize talent in the industry, so there is a hint of insincerity and disillusionment knowing that performance doesn’t always dictate their success. While having a good success story to root for is important, many of these award wins will go down in history either as memorable milestones or — like “Crash” — will be infamously disliked. But for ‘legacy Oscars,’ there really is no purpose when the Academy already presents honorary awards for lifetime achievement. So why should a nominee’s career history influence their Oscar win? Perhaps these awards offer audiences a glimpse into what goes on behind the billion-dollar industry.
