With the academy awards coming up, it is easy to get up in arms over the fact that Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie didn’t receive any nominations for their phenomenal work in the Barbie movie. Although this act seems like a “blow to modern feminism” there have been important wins in terms of the recent nominations and film/music-based awards for women.
Awards recap
During the Golden Globes, Lily Gladstone made history by winning the Golden Globe for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama)” becoming the first indigenous person to ever win a Golden Globe or be nominated for an Oscar. Along with Gladstone, actress Ayo Edebiri won a Golden Globe, a Critic’s Choice Award, and Emmy (within a week) for her performance in the television series “The Bear.”
Over at the Grammy’s, the winners of The Big Four Awards were all women:
Album of the Year Midnights, Taylor Swift — Winner Album of the Year
Record of the Year “Flowers” – Miley Cyrus — Winner
Song of the Year “What Was I Made For?” (from the motion picture “Barbie”)– Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas O’Connell
Best New Artist Victoria Monét — Winner
SZA won the Grammy for “Best R&B Song” and “Best Pop Duo/Group Performance” along with Phoebe Bridgers. SZA also has the most nominations for this year’s ceremony, with 9 in total. The openly queer rock band boygenius (Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Daucus, and Julien Baker) was nominated and won the awards for “Best Alternative Music Album,” “Best Rock song,” and “Best Rock Performance.” Phoebe Bridgers also made the record for the most wins in one night, gaining 4 Grammy’s to add to her collection.
The Future of academy awards
These nominations and awards have made major strides for women in the academy; however, there are still problems that have consistently hindered the inclusivity and accessibility of film and music-based awards.
The Grammy’s selects certain awards to be in the pre-show ceremony versus televised in the main ceremony. Some of these events include:
Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performance
Best Latin Pop Album, Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative, Best Regional Mexican Album, Best Tropical Latin Album
It is interesting as to why these awards are not televised, considering their popularity and the fact that these categories are historically made up of people of color. Not every award can be shown, but there is something to say about the process of what is shown versus what is not, as well as who is making these decisions.
Looking at the history of the Oscars’, USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative states that “out of 13,253 nominees at the Academy Awards since 1929, 17% were women and 83% were men” and that “less than 2% of nominees were women of color.” There have been 435 nominations for the Oscar for “Best Actress in A Supporting Role,” but only 51 were women of color. The issue is not with the ability of these actresses, but rather with the process of choosing and voting for academy awards.
The majority the demographic for the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka the people who vote for Oscars) is white people. An article from the Hollywood Reporter shows statistics from 2022 that “the academy is 81 percent white and 67 percent male.”
Although the diversity of the Academy (regarding voting and nominations) is increasing, there is still a long way to go in terms of racial and gender inclusivity.