7 Social Media Insights Around The Oscar Nominations

ListenFirst just launched our new YouTube channel, and in our inaugural video, we used our social media analytics to determine the audience response to the recent Academy Award nominations. Without further ado, here are the Top 7 social media insights you should know about the Oscar nominations.

Insight #1. Expect Interest To Be Way Down Around The Oscars This Year

There were 269,820 Tweets mentioning the Oscar Nominations on March 15, 2021 which was a -45% decrease from the 493,448 Tweets that mentioned the Oscars nominations on January 13, 2020. While it’s not shocking considering how many movie releases have been delayed in the past year, and how many theaters have been closed, there’s a significantly lower level of interest in the awards show in 2021.

Insight #2. With Theaters Closed, People Don’t Care About Nomination Snubs As Much

In a year when most movie theaters were closed, there was much less discussion over what films or performances were overlooked around the Oscar Nominations. There were 1,008 Tweets mentioning Oscar Snubs on March 15, 2021 compared to 3,904 Tweets mentioning Oscar Snubs on January 13, 2020, when the Oscar nominations were announced last year.

That’s not just about people watching less movies however. With so many serious Oscar contenders debuting on streamers like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu in past year, likely more people have already seen these films than would have if they had more traditional theatrical runs. That said, a performance is probably not going to hit the same way, if you watch the film over a couple of sittings while distracted by your phone, as opposed to at once with an auditorium of other people.

Insight #3: Minari Was The Biggest Winner On Social

Minari was the Oscar nominated film that had the biggest lift in social engagement because of the nominations. It had a social engagement score of 65,272, which was an increase of +1,066% comparing March 15 to March 14, 2021. 

Insight #4: The Best Actor Race Drove The Most Responses On Twitter

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1371442727943032832

Most of the top performing Tweets mentioning the Oscar Nominations on March 15, 2021 brought up the history being made in the Best Actor category.  For instance, a Tweet talking about how Steven Yeun becomes the first Asian-American actor to be nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars got 11,268 responses while another Tweet congratulating Riz Ahmed on making history as the first Muslim to be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar got 10,396 responses.

Insight #5: The Women Got The Audience’s Attention Around the Best Director Race


On March 15, 2021 there were 5,118 Tweets mentioned  that for the first time, two women were nominated for Best Director in the same year: Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell. 

Insight #6. Mank Ruled The Day In Terms Of Wikipedia Performance

David Fincher’s Mank may have gotten the most Oscar nominations this year, but its great performance was expected and without the element of surprise it wasn’t as talked about on social media as you might expect. However, Mank did get 167,179 page views of their Wikipedia page on March 15, 2021 which was the highest total for any nominated film on the day.

Insight #7. Don’t Expect A Huge Immediate Lift In Social Media Followers From A Nomination

Minari got 2,614 new fans or followers on their social media accounts the day the Oscars nominations were announced, and that was the highest such total for any nominated film. If a movie isn’t already on someone’s radar, getting Oscar nominations alone is unlikely to be enough to lead to a follow.

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