On Sunday, February 9, the 92nd Academy Awards took place, and this year’s show came with big surprises and historic wins. After 92 years and an endless amount of renown and power associated with the awards, is it really about the best films of the year anymore?
While the Oscars went without a host this year, Chris Rock and Steve Martin opened the show with a monologue. Almost immediately. Chris Rock began firing at the Academy for their lack of representation in big categories like Best Director and across the board.
When the categories came out in January, people were already giving the Academy backlash specifically for the completely male-dominated director category, and were claiming that Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”) was snubbed.
While, when the awards came out, I was shocked Gerwig wasn’t nominated, I couldn’t say I was surprised. For years, we’ve seen amazing work by minorities in the film industry get constantly overlooked by the Academy. Like Rock mentioned in the opening monologue, 92 years ago the Academy failed to recognize even one black nominee. This year, they’ve only recognized one.
To be more fair, the South Korean movie Parasite, written and directed by Bong Joon-ho, swept in all major categories, including both Best International Picture and Best Picture overall.
This was historic, as it was the first time an international film won in both categories, although Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma was nominated in both in 2019.
After all of this “snubbing” and overlooking notable work and even questionable comments about the films, are the Oscars even about what the best films are for the year?
While in the past, I may have said no, this year has made me think a lot more about what the Oscars mean and how that meaning is changing now that international films are getting the credit they deserve.
Based on actions in the past, however, it makes me wonder if the wins that Parasite earned were even genuine. In a world that is run by the media companies like NBC and Disney, it’s no wonder that people in charge of the Oscars want the ratings to be continually high, which means creating hype in advance, when the nominations come out.
By giving Best Picture to Parasite, are the Oscars just simply trying to create a better name for themselves and present themselves as an accepting award show, despite the lack of women and black nominees?
I think this is plausible, as over half of the Academy voters are white and male-and we’ve seen this happen in the past with Green Book. It was the winner for Best Picture last year, despite it being put up against arguably better films. In an early attempt to look more inclusive, the Academy could have voted for it, thinking it was the best portrayal of minorities, even though Roma, BlacKkKlansman and Black Panther were in the same category.
The Academy received much backlash for the decision, as not only was it not the “Best Picture”, but it also had racial controversy surrounding its creators. In an attempt to cover up this up, I believe by giving the awards to Parasite, they are actively trying to recover while also making it seem like they can appreciate the art that comes from other countries. They want to say that great movies from across the world stand a chance to win this coveted award as much as movies about Hollywood in the golden age do.
I wholeheartedly believe that Parasite deserved all of the awards they won at the Oscars, and it truly disappoints me that in 2020 that they were likely given because the film wasn’t American. Unfortunately, because of the Academy’s track record, I feel the need to speculate.
In the future, I hope that the Academy can change. I believe that they can bring in a more diverse crowd of voters who can speak up for the films that spoke for them and by nominating more women and people of color in the industry, young filmmakers can be inspired to do the same work for the generations below them.