Did The Wrong Movie Win An Oscar?

The Academy Awards make for great water cooler conversation, as co-workers take part in office pools and debate who they feel should come out on top during the film industry’s biggest night. This year’s Oscar season was marked by several changes – from continued promises of a much shorter telecast to the absence of a host – but we wanted to poll Mei users to get their thoughts.

Within one hour, over 1100 users (58% men, 36% women, 5% other/left blank) responded to our two-question poll about this year’s Oscars. What was notable was the indifference about watching the program, with most respondents (30%) either indicating that they didn’t know which film should have won the award or skipping the question entirely. Per Variety, early post-award ratings from today reveal a slight uptick in viewers over last year, which was the lowest-rated telecast in recent memory.

We asked Mei users which film they hoped would take away the evening’s biggest prize. Ironically, Green Book, which took home the Best Picture award last night, fared near the bottom of the list with only 15 votes. In recent years, the Motion Picture Academy has made efforts to appear more diverse and address the underrepresentation of women and communities of color. However, the film was marked by controversy from its initial release. Based on a true story that centers around an unlikely friendship between two men – Don Shirley, a black pianist and Tony Villelonga, a white chauffeur – in the south in the 1960s, Green Book was accused of historical inconsistencies by surviving family members and of perpetuating racial stereotypes.

While loved by Oscar voters, Green Book received mixed reviews from critics, and our poll respondents agreed. While only 2% of poll respondents voted Green Book, 28% said they would’ve preferred Black Panther to win Best Picture.

For Best Dressed, respondents were largely apathetic, with most indicating that they didn’t know who was the best dressed. This was particularly notable among men, with more than half (57%) not knowing or not answering who they thought looked the best last night. Perhaps they would rather have been watching sports instead!