In May of 1929, the very first Oscars would be held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Beginning as an attempt to stop actors from forming unions, the Oscars were simply a business move but they would soon become a deeply corrupt annual event badly disguised as a prestigious one. The Oscars are a form of reward given to the best actors and best movies, but who decides the greatest? Who should determine the best of the best in the entertainment industry?

Throughout the history of baseball, it has been consistently agreed upon that Babe Ruth is the best player to ever step up to the plate, but why is he considered the best? Because baseball was made with set rules and Babe Ruth pushed those rules beyond any reach of the imagination. In other words, it was easy to measure. The film industry has no real rules to hold onto, making it much more complex to simply determine who is best, unless the industry cheats. Movies may not have rules, but they have fans, popularity, and ratings. One would think a movie and its actors would receive votes from real people, rankings from the consumers in a world made for them (or in a world that should be made for them), but that is simply not true. So, who chooses? Who gives the prestige to actors? The industry does, the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Oscars are the gift of superiority from those who granted themselves the power to give it; behold the mock power white elephant party.

The film industry has, in recent times, forgotten who movies are made for and who gets to judge just how good a movie is. The Oscars perfectly reflect this state of mind in how much they pamper themselves, giving themselves gold statues based entirely on how the producers feel about them rather than the consumers. The Oscars of 2025 were no different. Emilia Perez was easily one of the worst films of the year according to its popularity. When the movie came out, the world did nothing but hate it, giving the movie a 16% Rotten Tomato score (in regards to the audience) and a 2.1 average rating. Despite the miserable lack of popularity of the film, it was nominated for a ridiculous 14 oscars and even won one. There were some movies and actors who deserved rewards and got them while others didn’t, there were some who didn’t deserve any and still received them, and there were others, who should not have even been standing in that room, that were handed the golden statue all the same.

These events continue to furthermore show off the corruption of the entire movie world. Ricky Gervais best explained this in his legendary monologue he gave the actors as he hosted the Oscars of 2020, mockingly saying “Do I pander to the 200 privileged egos in the room, or do I try and entertain a global audience of 200 million people sitting at home who aren’t winning awards?”