It’s time for the Oscars, which means it’s time to begin spending our time discussing how disappointed we all are in the Oscars with the occasional pleasant surprise, but mostly spending time with our disappointments.
Check the full list here.
First, it’s important to understand why we care at all about what the Oscars can do. After all, time and time again has proven that the Oscars are often one of the last barometers of what will last from a year in film, and often lean towards a narrow conception of artistry and star power, more likely to focus on compromise candidates over challenging or subtle work.
After all, have you watched Argo more times than Zero Dark Thirty or Django Unchained? Did you really get something bigger from The Artist than from Hugo, The Descendants or The Tree of Life? Was The King’s Speech really more reflective of 2010 than Inception or The Social Network?
But these films are important because they drive conversation in the industry. After all, Hollywood is nothing if not an industry seeking recognition, and the Oscars are the number one drivers of that recognition. There’s no reason for an industry to go out of their way to change if the industry is getting the recognition they seek from their status quo operations.
Which leads us quickly into the first issue arisen from the Oscars this year. Below is the list of Acting nominees, the faces that we constantly see reflect the world of film back on us:
| Best Actor | Best Actress | Best Supporting Actor | Best Supporting Actress |
| Bryan Cranston | Cate Blanchett | Christian Bale | Jennifer Jason Leigh |
| Matt Damon | Brie Larson | Tom Hardy | Rooney Mara |
| Leonardo DiCaprio | Jennifer Lawrence | Mark Ruffalo | Rachel McAdams |
| Michael Fassbender | Charlotte Rampling | Mark Rylance | Alicia Vikander |
| Eddie Redmayne | Saoirse Ronan | Sylvester Stallone | Kate Winslet |
Do a quick Google Images search. As has consistently been a problem in the industry and with the Oscars in particular, the field of nominees that recognize the faces in front of the camera is entirely white.
What I say doesn’t take away from the strength of many of the performances. (Many, not all — some of them shouldn’t be on that list, but that’s for another time.)
But 2015 has revealed a particular flaw within the process that wields so much power over the conversation. The Academy is quick to blame the industry, stating that they merely reflect what Hollywood is doing, and that as a body, The Academy will make every effort to widen the industry’s normal stream of thought.
But 2015 gave them a chance to do that. Michael B. Jordan in Creed provided an endearing, nuanced performance in a film that hit its audience hard, taking the reins of one of Hollywood’s most major franchises. Oscar Isaac created one of the year’s most interesting antagonists in Ex Machina. Benicio del Toro did a sinner and saint performance in Sicario better than anyone has. All of these were films that put the work in to get the nominations for their protagonists, as all have a nomination.
And yet they didn’t. Not one of them was in the list. And we see a curious trend in other categories too. Carol, a beautiful and elegant period romance, failed to secure a Best Picture and Best Director nomination, despite one of the most amazing displays of skill from a director in some time by Todd Haynes. No nomination for director Ryan Coogler’s work on Creed, the sort of young, diverse talent that the Academy claims it desires to nurture and therefore would be almost a given to nominate (or so you would think).
Is it possible that a body with a makeup that is 94% white, 76% male and has an average age of 63, even as it slowly gains diversity, still may have a great deal of difficulty being interested in stories outside of their own purview? And it isn’t a case of a lack of quality, despite what anyone seeking to downplay the problem may tell you. The talent could not be more clearly there. But the recognition is not.
That recognition is vital to driving the industry conversation, and until it’s there, until changes are legitimately made, we’re going to see a continual overlooking of the stories of minority groups continue, especially those that affirm or operate outside of majority existence. It’s not going to matter that queer women are enthralled by the story they get to see in Carol, or that there is the constant surprise we seem to all feel when films oriented towards a black audience mysteriously seem to keep making bank. Until the Academy is willing to make legitimate and real changes, they’re going to remain stuck in the past.
Moving past this conversation, The Revenant leads the list with 12 nominations and Mad Max: Fury Road with 10. If there’s ever been a greater show of what I hate in the industry versus what I love, I can’t imagine it. I’ll be pulling in full for Fury Road to get the win this year, representing the future of this industry as vitally as it does.
And of course, there is room to praise. Obviously, the praise heaped on Mad Max: Fury Road is well-earned, as is the recognition of Room, a film that seemed to be right on the edge of getting nominated due to its tough subject matter, but whose strong performances and heartwrenching construction seems to have gotten through to the Academy. The Cinematography category is legitimately one of the best categories in a long time — five masters doing amazing work. Recognition is well due to Brie Larson, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alicia Vikander, as well as to Sylvester Stallone and Mark Rylance. Anomalisa’snomination begins what I hope is an important movement towards adult animation as a legitimate and common film form. Johan Johansson’s score for Sicario was so much a part of the film’s suffocating nature and I’m glad to see an atmospheric score get a little love. And Ex Machina’s screenplay nomination was one of the most pleasant surprises I’ve seen in a while; I expected that film to go completely underseen.
Overall, this year’s Oscar nominees meet expectations, but certainly not what you hope. We see the unfortunate trends, such as all-white nominees in the acting categories and the general narrow conception that the Oscars have of films worth discussing as seen in the Best Picture category, continue, but there’s nothing as mind-boggling to me as the omission of The Lego Movie last year.
The Oscars seem to forget their power to drive industry conversation, and the importance of the responsibility therein. Hopefully, they’ll fix that next year — but I said that last year.
