This is In Conversation from Apple News.

I'm Sam Sanders in for Shumita Basu.

Today, how the Oscars actually work.

And why we still love them anyway?

At last year's Oscars, a small independent film called Anora won best picture.

On stage, producer Alex Coco underscored just how small that film's budget was compared to a lot of other numbers.

Thank you guys so much. Thank you to the Academy. We made this movie for $6 million.

Shooting all in low- What Coco didn't mention is how much more money the ANORA team spent

to win its Oscars. Behind the scenes, the marketing, distribution, and awards campaign for

ANORA reportedly cost around $18 million. It's almost three times the film's production budget.

Award season isn't just about making the art.

It's about strategy, months of screenings, Q&A's, festival stops,

for-your-consideration ads, private receptions.

And this is all aimed at a relatively small group of people, the roughly 11,000 members

of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Turns out, Anora's price tag is not that unusual.

Just the size of award season, the way that the Academy voters are now spread around the world,

the amount of events and festivals and tastemaker screenings and smaller award ceremonies,

you've got to get your people in as many locations as possible.

That's Katie Rich.

She's been covering the entertainment industry and the Oscars for years.

She's the awards editor at the Ancler, an entertainment business newsletter, and she hosts

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