Through Her Lens: 2017 (The 90th Oscars)

A series by Juan Carlos Ojano. Previous Episodes: 2018 | 2019 | 2020-21

The 2017 awards season was marred by the multiple accusations of sexual abuse and harrassment made towards several industry giants, mainly notorious film producer Harvey Weinstein. This catapulted the #MeToo and #TimesUp movement into the international spotlight, addressing women’s issues in a broader context, especially with a misogynistic president sitting at the White House.

At that year’s Oscars, Greta Gerwig became only the fifth woman to be nominated for Best Director in the awards’ ninety years of existence. A moment that must be celebrated, but also an embarrassing reminder of how Hollywood has failed women directors, whether in awards or in actual film production. Out of the 341 films included in the Reminder List of Eligible Films in 2017 (90th Academy Awards), 60 (17.6%) were directed/co-directed by women...

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Best International Film: Luxembourg, Paraguay, Switzerland

by Cláudio Alves

Instead of thinking about continental closeness, feminine authorship, or similar Oscar records, today's Best international Film submissions are bonded by a thematic link. The pictures selected to represent Luxembourg, Paraguay, and Switzerland all explore matters of displacement, whether through immigration or forced uprooting. They run the gamut, from fiction to documentary, from stories of economic precarity and political oppression to tales of colonial trauma. Though they're championing their countries in the Oscar race, these films consider the nations through complicated lenses and layers of otherness…

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Best International Film: Belgium, Kosovo, Russia

by Cláudio Alves

Our odyssey through the Best International Film submissions continues, this time focused on women behind the camera. As Juan Carlos' series Through Her Lens reminds us, there's a wealth of women directors every year whose work gets forgotten in lieu of their male counterparts. Of course, that's true in the Best Director Oscar race, but it also applies to every other category, including this one. From schoolyard bullying shot as psychological warfare to the physical aftermaths of an unspoken massacre, the submissions from Belgium, Kosovo, and Russia showcase the talent of female artists who explore many shades of brutality through a woman's point-of-view…

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Through Her Lens: 2018 (The 91st Oscars)

A series by Juan Carlos Ojano 
Previously: Episode 1 - 2020-21 / Episode 2 - 2019 

Eyes were on the Best Director category at the 91st Academy Awards after Greta Gerwig became only the fifth woman to be nominated in the said category the previous year. Contemporaneous articles expressed disappointment with this fact, but this Oscar year was also plagued with other issues: no ceremony host, plans to give out awards during commercial break, and divisive films like Green Book, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Vice being major factors, too.

In a way, these other controversies clouded what could have been a more extensive discussion regarding representation in the Best Director category. Out of the 347 films included in the Reminder List of Eligible Films in 2018 (91st Academy Awards), 62 of them (or 17.9%) were directed/co-directed by women.

OSCAR-NOMINATED FEMALE-DIRECTED FILMS (in alphabetical order): Animal Behaviour*, Bao*, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Capernaum, Free Solo, Late Afternoon*, Marguerite*, Mary Queen of Scots,  Period. End of Sentence.*, and RBG. (*not in the eligibility list for Best Picture)

OUR ALTERNATIVE SET OF FIVE...

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Best International Film: Mexico's "Prayers for the Stolen"

by Cláudio Alves

I don't usually take notes while watching films. However, after a screening ends, I might run to my notebook or laptop to jot down some detail, the description of an incredible image I want to preserve in my memory. It's especially true when I know I'm reviewing said film later on, as was the case with Tatiana Huezo's narrative feature debut, Prayers for the Stolen or Noche de Fuego. This time, though, I didn't just have a couple of stray compositions that had left an impression. Indeed, I wrote down a review's worth of small observations, fleeting images that captured the imagination, portentous symbolism that enchanted through its menace, sounds echoing in my head long after the credits rolled. Such is Huezo's ability to draw poetry from harsh realism

Watching Mexico's Oscar submission is to be immersed in a cinematic world of dangerous beauty, a sinister corner of the country, rural and ruthless. In the right circumstances, the vast landscapes of mountains and poppy fields might have looked pastoral, but there's far too much menace in the air for it to register...

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