Every year when the Oscar nominations are announced the “hue and cry” from the internet, on social media, on the radio and television about nomination snubs or how no one cares about wealthy elites giving each other awards, begin. But they don’t get it.

The reason I like Oscar nominations or the announcements of any type of awards in entertainment (books, TV, music) is exposure, awareness.

This film, for example, is on this year’s Best International Feature Film list. If it wasn’t, my local cinema wouldn’t be showing it, I wouldn’t be aware of it and I’d probably never see it. Because of the Oscars, over the past decade, I’ve been exposed to foreign films that I’d never would have gotten a chance to see.

And that’s a good thing.