Oscar Bait: The Academy Awards & Cultural Prestige

The Academy Awards – or "the Oscars" – have held a unique position in defining and enacting "prestige" for film industries and their publics. In evaluating ‘the best’ of film, they wield cultural influence over such cinema practices as consumption and evaluation, filmmaking aesthetics and narratives, and the discursive activity of Hollywood’s industrial agents and audiences. Oscar Bait: The Academy Awards & Cultural Prestige offers a comprehensive insight into how a film or star positions one’s self as a viable competitor worthy of such consecration in new media contexts.