On the Oscars and where they go wrong

To say the Academy award (commonly know as the Oscars) are important in the US film industry is an understatement. This is what the whole film season seems to be about. Almost ever serious drama film gets pegged as 'potential Oscar nominee' and there even seems to be a 'genre' specifically made to be Oscar worthy. The main controversy of the most recent years has been the lack of diversity in the acting categories. It gets discussed in industry papers like Variety (Gray, 2016) and even on late night talk shows as can be seen in the video below.

The Daily Show - Another White Oscars (2016)

But just looking at who is nominated in the Acting categories would be short sighted. The other controversy with this year Oscars appears in it's exclusion of two of the five original song nominees form the broadcast, but the inclusion of Dave Grohl, who has nothing to do with any of the movies nominated this year (Hammond & Pedersen, 2016). This itself is not controversial per se, but that the two songs that were cut are made by people belonging to a minority seems to be strangely coincidental. Best song nominee Ahohni knows she "wasn't excluded from the performance directly because [she is] transgender...But if you trace the trail of breadcrumbs, the deeper truth of it is impossible to ignore...It is a system of social oppression and diminished opportunities for transpeople that has been employed by capitalism in the U.S. to crush our dreams and our collective spirit." (2016) The other song nominees who were excluded from the broadcast, composer David Lang and singer Sumi Jo, have not responded to their exclusion.

The real reason for writing this piece is, however, the revelation in a lecture about politics that the Palestinian film Divine Intervention (2002) was excluded from the foreign language category in 2002. It was thought this came about because Palestine is not recognised as a country by the United States and the Academy seemingly follows their guide when it comes to who to include. A film with a clear country of origin was now considered a creative refugee (Doherty & Abunimah, 2002). However, the film was included in the foreign language selection the following year. The Academy made the decision to treat Palestine the same way they treat Hong Kong, which is as a 'separate entity' (Joseph, 2014). The way this movie was treated demonstrates the Academy's need to put everything into a box from which it can not escape. What will they ever do with a non-binary person...

To actually get an idea of how rigid the Academy is one can look through their eligibility rule for the past year (Oscars, 2015). The specific standards they set for who is able to apply they are hampering young creative people who have the hope to ever win an Oscar. (I know I've given up on that hope, I'd rather win a BAFTA...) The use of certain standards is understandable and a way to ensure quality, however, that quality should not mean that only a small group of people will be able to compete. The rules they have posed have nothing to do with creativity and everything to do with how many people you know in the industry. If you know the right people, your film is going to get funding and going to get screened which is the only way to even be eligible to compete. This is of course not only the case with the Oscars, but with most awards which aren't voted for by the public.

The main concern when it comes to the Oscars is simply its elitist view of film. All nominees for best film/actor/actress/director/writer are drama films (Oscars, 2016). Even movies like the Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and The Martian (2015), which are not normally considered drama films (The Martian won the Best Comedy/Musical award at the Golden Globes (Golden Globes, 2016)) there is a strong element of tragedy and tension not normally found in movies that attract large audiences. Neither of the two is very likely to win the Oscar for best film, with serious contenders like Spotlight (2015) and The Revenant (2015). The common factor with all these movies is who made them. Every single movie nominated in the best film category is directed by a middle-aged man who has been working in the industry for a long time. This is not to say that the decision to nominate a movies should be based on the age and gender of a director, but it does seem like it is once again an issue of access to the industry.

The movies themselves carry a political message, however one sides. Due to very few non-white characters in the nominated movies, we are only show an all-white world view. This has been the case for most of Oscar history, but now it is damning, when considering the quality movies with a black or otherwise diverse cast that came out this year. The most talked about movie in this regard is Straight Outta Compton (2015), which got nominated for a script written by white people (Dickens, 2016). There have been people who argued that without any available roles it is not possible to be nominated, but now it has become clear that even with the roles and the movies, there are no nominations forthcoming.

The problem with the Oscars is not only the Oscars themselves, but the industry surrounding it. It's the lack of recognition and access for anyone who is deemed different, no matter how strange some of the people working inside the industry might already be.


Bibliography:

Gray, T. (2016) Academy Nominates All White Actors for Second Year in Row.  Available at: http://variety.com/2016/biz/news/oscar-nominations-2016-diversity-white-1201674903 (Accessed: 26 February 2016).

The Daily Show - Another White Oscars (2016), Comedy Central, 15 January. Available at: https://youtu.be/EkpZTRUkFYI (Accessed: 26 February 2016).

Hammond, P. & Pedersen, E. (2016) Oscars' Playlist Two Songs Shorter This Year As Star Power Reigns.  Available at: http://deadline.com/2016/02/oscars-best-song-nominees-cut-from-ceremony-1201706114/ (Accessed: 26 February 2016).

Anohni (2016) Anohni: Why I Am Not Attending the Academy Awards.  Available at: http://pitchfork.com/news/63773-anohni-why-i-am-not-attending-the-academy-awards/ (Accessed: 26 February 2016).

Divine Intervention (2002) Directed by Elia Suleiman [Film] UK: Artificial Eye.

Doherty, B. J. & Abunimah, A. (2002) Oscars' double standard turns Palestinian film into refugee. Available at: https://electronicintifada.net/content/oscars-double-standard-turns-palestinian-film-refugee/4264 (Accessed: 27 February 2016).

Joseph, A. (2014) 9 Palestinian Films Everyone Should See. Available at: http://forward.com/the-assimilator/210201/9-palestinian-films-everyone-should-see/ (Accessed:27 February 2016).

Oscars (2015) 88th Academy Awards of Merit - Rules. Available at: http://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/88aa_rules.pdf (Accessed: 27 February 2016).

Oscars (2016) 2015 Nominee List. Available at: http://oscar-prod-images.bls-customers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/04065826/bdbe39484b6d6ff5a947b9509ffc9b2db118601de978f6e7ff3872572fe7274d.pdf (Accessed: 27 February 2016).

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Directed by George Miller [Film] UK: Warner Bros.

The Martian (2015) Directed by Ridley Scott [Film] UK: Twentieth Century Fox.

Golden Globes (2016) Winners & Nominees 2016. Available at: http://www.goldenglobes.com/winners-nominees (Accessed: 27 February 2016).

Spotlight (2015) Directed by Tom McCarthy [Film] UK: Entertainment One

The Revenant (2015) Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu [Film] UK: 20th Century Fox.

Straight Outta Compton (2015) Directed by F. Gary Gray [Film] UK: Universal.

Dickens, D. (2016) Somehow The Only Oscar Nomination For 'Straight Outta Compton' Went To White People. Available at: http://www.hitfix.com/harpy/somehow-the-only-oscar-nomination-for-straight-outta-compton-went-to-white-people (Accessed: 27 February 2016).