Matt Damon called the Oscar race "unnatural."

The star of Odyssey shared his thoughts on awards season fever and Hollywood campaign culture.

While promoting the Netflix crime thriller The Tender Cut, Matt Damon shared his perspective on the Oscar race. On the Skip Intro podcast, the actor—a three-time Oscar nominee and winner of a statuette for co-writing Good Will Hunting—candidly criticized the modern practice of film promotion during awards season.

Why Damon Criticizes Awards Season

When asked what he would prefer to skip in Hollywood, Damon replied: "Awards season. A hundred percent." The actor explained that he dislikes the very idea of a campaign, which feels "completely unnatural and weird" to him. He added: "Maybe it's good for movies—when everything is brought out into the public, and culture starts to reflect on and talk about films. I hope that's what it is…"

Experience Working on Odyssey

Despite criticizing the awards race, Damon is set to be part of such a campaign next year with the release of Christopher Nolan's epic Odyssey. The actor admitted that working on the large-scale project deeply affected him: "Working on Odyssey last year felt like my one chance in my lifetime to be in a David Lean-type movie. I felt like I was working on the last big film of my career that's shot on film."

Success of The Tender Cut on Netflix

The Tender Cut, which debuted on Netflix on January 16, 2026, garnered 41.6 million views in its first three days. This marked the biggest streaming film premiere since Happy Gilmore 2 in July 2025, which was watched by 46.7 million viewers. The action film by Joe Carnahan topped Netflix's most-watched films chart from January 12 to 19, 2026.