Ever since the movie Wings first won Best Picture nearly a century ago, the Academy Awards have been one of Hollywood’s most prestigious honors, celebrating cinematic achievement while also serving as a mirror to the film industry’s evolution. Although the Academy Awards—colloquially known as the Oscars—are associated with glitz and glamour, their history is also marked by moments of social change, industrial shifts, and the ongoing struggle to increase diversity.
The first Oscars ceremony in 1929 was a far cry from the star-studded spectacles of today. Held as a private banquet in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the ceremony was modest, with only 36 banquet tables and 270 attendees, reflecting the tight grip major studios like MGM, Paramount, and Fox had over the industry. As the Oscars grew in prominence—especially with their television broadcast debut in 1953—they became both a celebration of Hollywood’s elite and a battleground for the evolving definitions and justifications of artistic merit.
By the 1960s and 1970s, the Oscars became entangled in broader social and political movements. Sidney Poitier’s 1964 win for Lilies of the Field marked the first time a Black actor won Best Actor. On the other hand, Marlon Brando’s refusal of his Oscar for The Godfather in 1973 to protest the Wounded Knee Occupation—a 71-day occupation of the South Dakotan reservation town of Wounded Knee—marked the institution’s first prominent political association.
These moments laid the foundation for future calls for inclusion and diversity. The #OscarsSoWhite movement in 2015 and 2016, sparked by two consecutive years of all-white actor nominations, forced the Academy to expand its voting membership. They brought in more women, people of color, and international filmmakers. More recently, the Academy introduced diversity and inclusion requirements for Best Picture contenders, ensuring nominated films possessed lead actors from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group, a general ensemble cast of at least 30% from two underrepresented communities, or a main storyline centered around an underrepresented group. The implementation of this rule has led to outcry from many viewers, as some feel that it was only created to satisfy a diversity quota and was not made in good faith.
To stay relevant in a rapidly evolving industry, the Academy has made significant adjustments. In 2009, it expanded the Best Picture category from five to 10 nominees, opening the floor to a larger number of diverse films. The first Best Picture win of a non-English-language film, Parasite, in 2020 marked a turning point in the Academy’s treatment of global cinema. At the same time, the rise of streaming services like Netflix and Apple TV+ challenged the Academy’s long-standing preference for theatrical releases, prompting debates over what constitutes an Oscar-worthy film. However, the advent of the 2022 Best Picture win of CODA—the first direct-to-streaming film to win the honor—seemingly quelled such concerns.
Despite these changes, the Academy continues to face challenges. Viewership of the Oscars has steadily declined in recent years, and critics argue the ceremony needs to find new ways to engage the audience. According to a 2024 study by Statista, Oscars viewership dropped by over 60% since 2000. Meanwhile, Hollywood itself has been in flux as of late, with the pandemic, labor disputes, and the introduction of artificial intelligence slowing progress.
Yet, through every era of transformation, the Oscars have remained a defining institution in the filmmaking industry. The red carpet is still rolled out each year, and the Academy Awards continue to reflect the cinema industry’s evolving challenges and triumphs.
