The Oscars race is sometimes written off as a big popularity contest, but that’s technically not true, since Academy voters routinely pick Best Picture winners that are neither popular nor memorable. (Remember Birdman? It was two years ago.) Still, if it were possible to predict the winners based on positive sentiment on social media, Call Me By Your Name might be a shoo-in at the 90th Academy Awards on Sunday.
Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age drama attracted the highest volume of social media chatter in February, and the majority of it was positive, according to the analytics firm Sprout Social, which looked at more than 606,000 Best Picture-related social media posts across Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other networks.
The firm found 64,758 “positive” mentions for Call Me By Your Name, out of almost 153,000 total mentions, the highest out of any of the nine 2018 Best Picture nominees. Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water came in second, with 48,039 positive mentions out of 115,578.
Meanwhile, there’s bad news for Meryl Streep fans: The Post, Steven Spielberg’s timely historical drama, is at the bottom of the list, with only 13,588 positive mentions out of 26,508 total.
Of course, this list is just based on social mentions in February and may not be predictive of the winner. Personally, I’m rooting for Get Out, and I know I’m not alone. Strangely, Jordan Peele’s genre-bending social commentary is number five on Sprout Social’s list, despite being the second highest-grossing nominee behind Dunkirk. Popular sentiment be damned!
You can check out the full list below.
Best Picture-related social media mentions captured by Sprout Social between February 1-28 across major social networks.
Call Me By Your Name
- Total Mentions: 152,880
- Positive Mentions: 64,758
- Negative Mentions: 18,095
The Shape of Water
- Total Mentions: 115,578
- Positive Mentions: 48,039
- Negative Mentions: 12,304
Lady Bird
- Total Mentions: 64,063
- Positive Mentions: 34,268
- Negative Mentions: 7,249
Dunkirk
- Total Mentions: 73,586
- Positive Mentions: 33,085
- Negative Mentions: 12,988
Get Out
- Total Mentions: 56,196
- Positive Mentions: 32,136
- Negative Mentions: 9,802
Phantom Thread
- Total Mentions: 49,242
- Positive Mentions: 23,047
- Negative Mentions: 7,461
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
- Total Mentions: 41,033
- Positive Mentions: 19,245
- Negative Mentions: 5,342
Darkest Hour
- Total Mentions: 27,524
- Positive Mentions: 14,384
- Negative Mentions: 6,163
The Post
- Total Mentions: 26,508
- Positive Mentions: 13,588
- Negative Mentions: 3,613