The persistent (and extremely online) nature of Zack Snyder’s fans proved victorious once again on Oscars night, of all things, when “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” won the fan-voted award for “Cheer-Worthy Moment” (not to be confused with the “Fan-Favorite Movie” award)
A year after the fan-demanded Snyder Cut of “Justice League” was released exclusively on HBO Max, a moment from the film was voted the most cheer-worthy moment of all time during the Oscars ceremony.
In a bid to draw more interest from general moviegoers, the Oscars instituted two fan-voted “categories” during this year’s ceremony.
For the Ultimate Oscars Cheer Moment, fans were asked to vote from five moments: the Spider-Man team-up in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the Avengers Assemble moment from “Avengers: Endgame,” Jennifer Hudson’s “And I’m Telling You” solo in “Dreamgirls,” Neo dodging bullets in “The Matrix” and the Flash speed force scene in “Zack Snyder’s Justice League.” Voting was conducted by tweeting the film’s title along with a specific hashtag.
During the Oscars, the final results were revealed, with the standings as follows:
5. “The Matrix”
4. “Dreamgirls”
3. “Avengers: Endgame”
2. “Spider-Man: No Way Home”
1. “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”
This isn’t the first time the “Justice League” army has assembled online to effect change. For years, fans of Snyder’s rallied to get Warner Bros. to release the rumored “Snyder Cut” of the DC superhero film “Justice League.” Snyder left the project during post-production, and Joss Whedon took over to write and direct extensive reshoots, resulting in the underwhelming 2017 release.
Warner Bros. finally relented to fan demands, but the “Snyder Cut” didn’t quite exist yet. Snyder was given a budget to finish his version of the film, complete with new visual effects and even some additional photography. The result was the four-hour (and far superior) 2021 film “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” which was released exclusively on HBO Max.
How a streaming film that never got a theatrical release qualifies for a “cheer-worthy” moment is a question for another day.
