Following the recent backlash over this year’s overwhelmingly white Oscar nominations, people have started asking if the 89-year-old award ceremony has become too out of touch with the average moviegoer. Fading viewership and failed attempts at connecting with younger viewers (looking at you, Franco and Hathaway), haven’t helped the decades-old award show in reestablishing its significance.

The question of relevance concerning the Oscars isn’t exactly a new one. For years, the Oscars have been lampooned for their elitist, art-house nominations that the majority of the American public either haven’t seen or don’t understand. A perfect example of the Academy’s alienating nomination practices is "The Artist." The ode to the silent movie era, which took the Academy by storm in 2011 ceremony, was released for average audiences for just two weeks in order to qualify for the Academy Awards. With barely enough time to realize "The Artist" was even released, when the movie was nominated for Best Picture and when it eventually carried away the coveted gold statue, many average moviegoers were left scratching their heads.

Proponents of the Academy would counter these criticisms with the theory that often the most popular movies are not the best movies. The awards, which attract sizeable if shrinking ratings, allow movies that play more like art than entertainment to get the recognition they deserve among the superheroes and slasher flicks that clog current cinema.

This defense that the Oscars focus on artistic merit rather than box office success doesn’t address the whitewashing of nominations. The homogeneity of Oscar nominees has sparked outrage among moviegoers and actors alike who can’t help but notice that African Americans are often excluded from the aging, majority white, majority male Academy. A prime example this year is the movie, "Creed," which garnered a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Sylvester Stallone but left the film’s African American lead, Michael C. Jordan, and African American director, Ryan Coogler, ignored.

The protests against the Academy have not fallen on deaf ears. Surprising many this year was the Best Picture nomination for "Mad Max," a summer blockbuster that appealed to seasoned critics and casual moviegoers alike. Perhaps, more importantly, the Academy has taken steps to reform the actual voting body that selects which films and performances are nominated. By imposing new restrictions on how long a person can remain in the Academy, and by setting up rules concerning how active Academy members must be in the industry, it's hoped that in coming years nominations will be more reflective of today’s diverse public.

These changes indicate that the Academy knows, or, at least, concedes, that in order to maintain its place as the creme de la creme of film that they need to change with the times. Movies are made to reflect life and tell stories and an Academy that refuses to acknowledge the lives and stories of the people it represents cannot survive for another 89 years.