The Oscars lost their gloss with the public IMO with the back to back wins of Titanic and Shakespeare in Love beating LA Confidential and Saving Private Ryan.
Titanic while a lesser film was at least big hit and crowd pleaser like most Oscar winners up to then Shakespeare in Love started the Oscar's Weinstein Effect where Harvey pushing Miramax influenced the Oscar Community into believing the nominees had to be films "worthy" of the nomination you know "Cinema". Most films nominated over the next decade were films most people never saw and public lost interest there were exceptions like Return of the King though most were virtual unknowns to the average person.