As awards show season kicked off widespread across the televisions of millions of households worldwide, viewers cheered in their living rooms, scowled at the television and stared in awe as they watched “The Oscars”. While many shared joy, others argued about those who were rightfully awarded as well as those who were snubbed. As discussions arose, the students of Coral Gables Senior High expressed their own take on “The Oscars” and their winners.

Many claim it is difficult to dissect “The Oscars” without going into the opinions shared by viewers about the validity and fairness of The Academy’s verdicts. Are Gables’ students believers of this?

“I think that a lot plays into who wins and even though sometimes people rightfully win, I don’t believe that it’s a completely fair system. Throughout pop culture there have been so many times that someone has so clearly been snubbed or cleared every category and I don’t think it has always been fair. The judges for sure have their biases and sometimes that means more than true talent from what I’ve seen,” senior Angelina Milan said.

“I would not be surprised if money or trade offs had a part to play in who won every year at ‘The Oscars’. Sometimes winners are so far off public predictions that I feel most people are left surprised. Even if that isn’t always a factor, I think bias is shown year after year which is enough to qualify it as rigged. That’s why sometimes I think other awards shows like People’s Choice or Billboard are more fair,” freshman Isabella Hernandez said.

“A lot of people say the judges are bribed or that its pre-determined based on likability or the bias of the judges and I can honestly see that. There have been a lot of situations not just in ‘The Oscars’ but in most award shows where I’ve been left shocked at the result. A lot of times I think the results have been absolutely perfect, so it’s kind of something I feel varies with every award,” senior Alicia Amador said.

What some believe was the most popular movie of the year, “Barbie” faced abundant praise as well as extensive criticism. With six nominations, “Barbie” took home Best Original Song. Audiences have made the claim that Barbie deserved recognition as a film. Cavalier’s debate this claim.

“I can honestly see how ‘Oppenheimer‘ took home Best Picture but I think it is insulting that Margot [Robbie] didn’t even get a nomination. Throughout ‘The Oscars’ they mention Barbie constantly, it’s even talked about right at the beginning by the hosts as the most talked about movie of the year, so I just don’t see how they could fail to recognize her [Robbie’s] performance. And America Ferrera, she was nominated for best supporting actress and delivered an awesome monologue that I’m sad didn’t get recognition,” senior Angeline Morales said.

“I feel that visually, ‘Oppenheimer’ was at a different standard to Barbie. I feel like it had so many breathtaking shots and mind-blowing plot compared to Barbie, there are two very different genres going on with ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Barbie’. As per [Robbie] I don’t think it wasn’t rightfully-so, I just think there were other opportunities they wanted to give to other actresses from different, maybe lesser known movies who had phenomenal performances and maybe deserved it a little bit more; not to say that she didn’t deserve it or do a great job just that other candidates deserved the nomination more,” senior Sebastian Montoya said.

“I honestly was sad that ‘Barbie’ didn’t really win anything. It was all over TikTok and Instagram I felt like everyone was talking about it and for good reason and I feel like awards season was very lackluster for something I think was such a defining and fun movie,” freshman Mayliem Lastra said.

While “The Oscars” is often believed to be full of controversy, at its core, it aims to be a ceremony praising creative minds and their works. Many artists of all types of genres dream to be recognized in this way as a celebration full of overjoyed faces and amusing performances. Of everything that went on throughout “The Oscars”, what did Cavaliers enjoy most?

“For me yes, it was awesome to see some of my favorite movies and actresses get awarded, but I was blown away by Ryan Gosling’s performance. I think it brought such great energy to the show and it was honestly funny to see him sing such a silly song with so much talent. It was unexpected and moments like this truly make it worth the watch,” junior Mia Pardo said.

“During ‘The Oscars’ I honestly was watching most for the guy who was hosting it. I didn’t really know all of the categories or all of the movies [or] people who won but I enjoyed the commentary and stuck around because of it,” freshman Jake Sergovia said.

“My personal highlight was the winner of Best Animated Feature, which was a movie called ‘The Boy and the Heron’. That was a movie that just had a lot of potential and it came out to be on top from a very well known animator but also a well-deserving animator who got to take that win home,” senior Sebastian Montoya said.