By ALYSON KAUFMAN
Oscar season is here again. What should be a time of celebrating the notable films and actors of the last year has turned into a time of discourse and exclusion after many performances and films have been overlooked by the Academy. Once again, #OscarsSoWhite is a trending topic, and the best director category consists of all men after the nominations were announced on Jan. 13.
This year, only one person of color received an acting nomination out of 20 nomination slots, and once again, the best director category consists of all men. In the 92 years of The Academy’s history, only six women have ever received a best director nomination, and only one has won.
When asked about an initial reaction to the lack of diversity in this year’s nominations, current film student Courtney Jayne, 19, said, “Lack of diversity wasn’t a shock, but it was still disappointing, I think I’d be more shocked if it was diverse.”
“Congratulations to those men.” Issa Rae is a legend. pic.twitter.com/WmfhDaBSkf
— Harry (@TheHarryParsons) January 13, 2020
An Attempt to Change
In recent years, The Academy has boasted about recruiting a new generation of members, many young people of color, in order to scrape their stereotype of only consisting of old white men. However, according to the New York Times in Dec. 2019, 68 percent of Oscar voters are male, and 84 percent of Oscar voters are white.
Many had hoped that these new members would bring something new to the voting body, and vote for fresh films instead of the usual boring dramas typically seen for nearly 100 years. But last year, when Mexican movie “Roma,” which was considered a frontrunner, lost to a drama that had received a lot of backlash, “Green Book,” followers of the Oscars were disappointed in The Academy’s little change, and these most recent nominations prove it.
While some may say that awards don’t matter, seeing women and people of color constantly shut out of these prestigious honors is nothing short of discouraging. If The Academy were to recognize diverse films like “The Farewell,” “Dolemite is My Name,” and “Hustlers,” studios would see that films surrounding the stories of women and people of color have high demand and would be willing to give more opportunities to minorities.
“You can’t nominate people of color or women or LGBTQ people if there is no role for them or no opportunities given for them,” said Camille Namur, 26, a film school graduate.
The problem is, many woman and people of color made fantastic movies this year and were still overlooked by The Academy. “The Farewell,” “Little Women,” and “Hustlers,” are just three of the many female-directed movies that were critically acclaimed box office hits that received no nomination. Awkwafina even received a Golden Globe for her performance in “The Farewell,” yet the Academy failed to nominate her.
Though The Academy is moving forward, especially with the six nominations that South Korea’s hit “Parasite,” received, as well as its Korean director, Bong Joon Ho, there is still a long way to go, observers say. What needs to be understood is that recognizing one diverse token film is not enough, especially when there are so many films that have received no nominations.
The Oscar noms are disappointing, but not even remotely surprising this year. Yes the Academy is more diverse, but this goes to show *some* diversity does not make a system diverse. It takes real change. Greta Gerwig & Lulu Wang deserved so much more, as did the cast of Parasite
— James (@SonicAlligatour) January 14, 2020
your examples of films that should have gotten consideration were well thought out and fit great within the story.
the only negative thing I noticed is that you stated that all of the best director category nominations were male twice in the first two paragraphs.