At the Oscars, times are changing.
Tuesday, February 11, 2020 at 1:00PM
Please welcome guest contributor Mark Blankenship, who you've previously heard from as a guest panelist on the Smackdown...
Even while getting rightfully criticized by presenters who mocked the mostly-white acting line-up and the all-male slate of directors, the Academy still managed to deliver an Oscar ceremony this year that was full of historically inclusive winners. All of those victories are exciting on their own, and some even point to larger trends that suggest there's hope for this awards body yet. If the patterns hold, then the Oscars just might become prizes for all artists, no matter who they are.
For instance, Parasite's historic Best Picture triumph is even more encouraging when you consider it alongside Moonlight's win (about queer black men and boys)...
And The Shape of Water (about mute, black, queer, Jewish, and working class outsiders fighting a patriarchal system), and Spotlight (about journalists and working-class families resisting systemic abuse). That's four of the last five winners that tell stories about marginalized people and progressive causes. They make Green Book's white-focused approach to race relations seem like the last gasp of an old guard, rather than a regression.
Bong Joon-Ho's win for Best Director also extends a recent line. Seven of the last eight directing winners are from Mexico, Taiwan, or South Korea, and the other guy is Damien Chazelle, who directed an original romanic musical. These are decidedly unlike the directing awards of the late 80s and 90s that went to two Oliver Stone war movies, Steven Spielberg's bloody combat movie, Clint Eastwood's macho regret western, Kevin Costner's white savior western, and Mel Gibson's brutal historical drama where the big moment of comic relief was a gay character getting thrown out a window to his death!
While it was reinforcing those shifts, this year's Oscars hopefully also marked the beginning of other meaningful changes.
For instance, maybe it won't seem quite so remarkable the next time a woman wins the original score Oscar, now that Hildur Guðnadóttir finally broke that ceiling. The two previous women to win for their scores were competing for the short-lived comedy score award, which makes Guðnadóttir the first woman to win in the traditional category. She's also only the third woman even to be nominated here, after Mica Levi for Jackie and Rachel Portman for Chocolat and The Cider House Rules. This category is still essentially the domain of white dudes, but this year has to count for something.
And while we're rightfully mourning the scant attention paid to brilliant films by women and people of color this year, we can take solace in facts like these:
* Karen Rupert Tolliver, who won in Original Short, is now the first black woman to win in ANY short category
* Taika Waititi is the first Maori artist to win ANY Oscar
* Women won in both documentary categories
* Women also won for production design, makeup, and costumes
* Elton John, an iconic gay legend, now has two Oscars
* Parasite is the first non-English screenplay winner since Talk to Her (2002) and the first time an Asian person has won any writing Oscar.
These victories don't erase the Academy's default to white and male artists, but they have a cumulative weight nevertheless. Something really does appear to be happening. The effort to expand and diversify the Academy, a long term plan spearheaded by former Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs, does indeed appear to be shaking things up. And while no one who cares about inclusivity in cinema can afford to stop fighting -- just like no one who cares about inclusivity anywhere can ever afford to stop -- we owe it to ourselves to acknowledge the victories whenever or wherever they occur. Taking a moment to appreciate what's been gained is a crucial way to find the strength to push onward.
And sure, these are just, in the end, gold statues. They're not going to get immigrant children out of cages, and they're not going to give health insurance to people who work multiple jobs and still can't afford coverage. But when a diverse array of artists win high-profile recognition for telling a diverse array of stories, they help normalize the idea that everyone counts. In quite a few ways at the 92nd Academy Awards, the Oscars actually reminded us that that's true.
previously in 92nd Academy Awards coverage
musical performances, ranked
top five presenters or duos
embroidered fashion statements (literally)
new Oscar trivia
the winner and immediate afterthoughts
Reader Comments (19)
Thank you for this wonderful writing and inspiring essay. Yes, there is hope. And the Oscars are trying. That means something for all cinephiles who care about the world.
Lol. Come on. People were saying this in 2016. And then Green Book won last year. The Oscars just 'respond' to the previous year.
I guess I never bought the idea that the voters were implementing change, but I do think the industry is leaning towards inclusivity, and we're seeing the Oscars gradually reflect that. It's honestly the way business and the world at large is moving, with an increased international focus. Can you imagine us knowing a decade ago that the majority of director winners would come from foreign countries in the 10s? It didn't happen to make a statement - it happened because we're expanding the voices we're hearing in media, which is even better. The Academy isn't the vehicle of radical change, but it is the barometer for changes that are slowly happening throughout the industry.
Hot take: Elton John didn't need another Oscar when Cynthia Erivo could've gotten the EGOT!
*sigh*
And it was only two years ago that Kobe Bryant was the first black person of any gender to win in the Best Animated Short category.
This is super, since we can agree that the Academy doesn’t actually celebrate the best in anything all the time. So if they want to recognize a diverse group of people when they can, then awesome.
“Best” is subjective on the best of days, anyway.
Still, lists like these kind of gross me out when it shows that an organization seems to just be marking off “goals” on their minority report. Taika Waititi won for being Maori or because it was truly earned?
We’ll never know.....
I really don't understand this article,Are these the same voters who voted "It's hard out here for a pimp" as best song and the ones who nominated countless women in costume design,short story,song,production/costume design and the following actors
Poitier,Viola,Octavia,Regina,Mahershala,Monique,Quvenzhane,Halle,Mutphy,Hudson,Cynthia,Negga,Whoopi,Denzel,Rollins Jr,Spike,Chiwetel,Lupita,Alfre,Will,Cuba,Caeser,Freeman,Sam Jackson,Gossett,Whitaker,Cheadle,Sidibe,Foxx,Oprah and countless others.
It's been inclusive for years,as long back as 1939 when Hattie won.
I like this post so much. I admit that many times i complain about the things that i don't agree (because you know, free speech) but is very important to make a balance between positive and negative things to get into a more objective perspective.
I especially applaud that final paragraph, thanks
This is all very nice but people are not watching the movies that are winning.
I think most people can come up with some idea of why Lupita,Alfre,Jamie,Aldos,Michael,Taylor,Octavia,Eddie etc weren't nominated
Lupita the horror bias
Alfre and Aldos late release date
Foxx and Jordan Dec release not exciting enough for passion votes
Russell off putting film to some unknown name
Octavia early release small film
Eddie competitive category comedy his persona
Beautiful closing statement in this piece. Brava!
DAVID
Daytime Emmys do not count for EGOT, so, even if she won the Oscar, she still wouldn't have it.
Green book may be a bland movie, but it is a movie about systemic racism with a queer protagonist. So i think it fit the pattern of change. More than Spotlight in my opinion.
@DI - whoopi goldberg and robert lopez beg to differ
I still don't think its fair to nominate a film for both Foreign film and best picture
Marie-Louise (1944) won an Oscar for Best writing (Original screenplay), it's a Swiss film spoken in German and French.
June - that simply isn't true. Oscar winning movies are often hits. Over half of the best picture nominees were $100 million grossers this year in the states. And Parasite has made $160 million globally now and is nearing $40 million in the states which hasn't been done by a foreign film in 14 years. We hear this complaint that Oscar movies are not popular each year but it's not really true. For instance just last year people wrote countless articles about how Green Book was a flop but it was never true. It was just a slow burn success was all. It ended up grossing $329 globally (and $85 million in the states) all on a $23 million budget so major success.
I guess it just depends on what circles you travel in or what cities you live in. No they're not popular like STAR WARS popular but very very very few things are.
Manny -- i am 1000% certain that not a single Oscar voter thought "we've never given the prize to a Maori man before. Let's do that! They just liked that movie a lot. The trivia and records are just fun factoids that oscar obsessives collect but most Oscar voters aren't aware of the minutae of trivia. Having been to many oscar functions it's kind of shocking how little they obsess over the things Oscar watchers obsess over.
eurocheese -- good point.
The last paragraph is great and a bit surprising that Nathaniel didn’t edit it out. He tends to despise any slight political reference no matter how apt or needed it is. Just an observation.
Hope you’re right about the Academy’s direction and hopefully it continues swifter and swifter. Also as somebody who actually ‘got’ Helen Hayes in Airport, your pieces will always be deserving of a read.
"brutal drama where the big moment of comic relief was a gay character getting thrown out a window" That still works for Three Billboards, though.