So. The Oscar nominations were announced today. I still have not seen Little Women and The Farewell, two films that were snubbed in various categories, according to many. Both of them were directed by women, The Farewell – by a woman of color. No women were nominating in the Best Director category. Again. The two aforementioned films come out at the end of the month in my country, I suspect I am going to like (maybe love) them. I write this seemingly redundant tidbit to explain their absence in what is going to be my list of grievances with the nominations.
As always, the Academy proves it is not willing to go beyond the status quo. It nominates the same kind of films every year. Joker could be seen as something fresh but I truly dislike this film and I am annoyed that it got the highest amount of nominations. I also thought Ford v Ferrari was one of the most soulless, gutless, most boring projects of the year – this is a film I would call an Oscar bait. And both of those got Best Picture nominations. Ridiculous.
The acting nominations are extremely white. The one actress of color nominated is Cynthia Erivo for Harriet. I have not seen Harriet yet, I have no reason to suspect she does a bad job, but it does seem pretty disturbing that the one woman of color they choose to nominate played a slave. Especially when you consider other actresses of color who gave amazing performances last year – including award-winning ones. The two that immediately come to mind are Lupita Nyong’o in Us and Awkwafina in The Farewell (as I mentioned earlier – I have not seen the film yet but she just won a Golden Globe). And, maybe the saddest omission – Jennifer Lopez did not get nominated for Hustlers. I do not understand it.
But even white men were not safe! Robert De Niro was seen as potential winner and he did not get nominated. Neither did Taron Egerton (and if there was any justice he would if only to balance out last year’s embarrassment that was Bohemian Rhapsody). Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, a fantastic film, got him a writing nomination and nothing else. No directing, no production design, no acting nominees…
And Todd Philips got nominated for Joker. There are no words.
As always, horror films were some of the greatest of what cinema had to offer in 2019: Midsommar, The Lighthouse (a lone cinematography nod), Us… I could nominate everyone based on these films alone. But I guess generic biopics are more in line of what the Academy deems great cinema.
Swingin' at the Seance 