The 2022 Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday created a lot of buzz because… well, you probably know why. But a lot of other stuff happened, too, including the historic wins of CODA for Best Picture, Troy Kotsur for Supporting Actor, Ariana DeBose for Supporting Actress, and Jane Campion for Best Director (the third woman to win this category in the Oscars’ 94-year history).

Year after year, the Oscars keeps making a bid for its relevance to the broader American public, changing up how the ceremony is structured and even the awards themselves. What can this tell us about the role of celebrity and cinema in Hollywood and in our own lives?

For today’s show, WORT producer Nate Carlin spends the hour with Vox film critic Alissa Wilkinson doing a deep, nerdy dive into these questions about the Academy, film in the age of streaming, the ever-evolving Oscars ceremony, and the magic of the movies.

Alissa Wilkinson is a film critic and culture reporter at Vox. Her work has been published in Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, Vulture, The Atlantic, and more. Alissa is also an associate professor of English and humanities at The King’s College in New York City.

Cover photo by GR Stocks on Unsplash

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