Millions discover the year's best picture by watching the Oscar awards show, but just like presidential races, politics and structure shift the process. Oscar voting follows a convoluted structure. Instead of using a simple majority where the winner gets the most votes, the system requires a full fifty per cent margin of support.
This means several voting rounds until a title eventually emerges — though possibly not the one that originally got the most votes. Confusing? Absolutely. As the only other major group using that system, the Producers Guild chose the movie "Green Book" as Best Picture, an enjoyable film that comes saddled with controversy about its approach to racism.
As for politics, nothing prevents vote trading and personal issues. The saving point comes from quality — which all the nominees feature. They may win the Oscar, but all feature excellent qualities. The Oscar show airs this Sunday.
This review was originally aired on 2/22/2019.
You can listen to it online at https://www.kunr.org/post/oscar-night
