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Awards season is in full swing. The Golden Globes and Emmys kicked off the year in January, followed by the Grammys earlier in February, and the upcoming Oscars in March.
My first thought each time the camera sweeps over tables of crowded celebrities in a theater is how absolutely wild it is to sit so many unmasked people together during one of the highest surges since this pandemic started, while an incredibly contagious variant circulates. It’s a stark reminder that the world has decided to move on despite COVID-19’s debilitating potential and abysmal vaccination rates.
Next is the “politics” of awards shows (I hate that word). The bar is low; after all, these aren’t activists, they’re very out-of-touch celebrities. Yet, just two years ago, awards shows had no issues centering Ukraine, with the Grammys streaming a video of President Volodymyr Zelensky urging people to speak for the country. During the 2024 Golden Globes, there was not a peep about the ongoing genocide in Palestine, and aside from Annie Lennox’s Grammys tribute to Sinead O’Connor, the show made a poor attempt at vaguely calling for peace.
Drama over Oscar nominations brewed up a storm online when Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig were not nominated for Best Actor and Best Director for Barbie. Even Hilary Clinton felt the need to chime in, using her influence to…defend successful white women at the Oscars. Not only does this ignore the fact that both Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig are nominated, as producer (Best Picture) and screenwriter (Adapted Screenplay) respectively, it overshadowed other historical nominations. Lily Gladstone’s nomination for Killers of the Flower Moon is incredibly significant; they are the first Native American actress to receive a nomination for Best Actress at the Oscars, out of just three Indigenous women ever to be nominated for the category. As far as feminism goes, Justine Triet’s nomination for Anatomy of a Fall is also important, as she goes up against four male directors for Best Director, and the movie explores how women are scrutinized by the court system. America Ferrera’s nomination for Best Supporting Actress deserves recognition, too; there are lots of notable nominations to celebrate this year given the Academy Awards’ unfortunate history with diversity and snail-paced improvements. To say the least, it’s interesting that the Barbie Oscar snubs have been perceived as an insult to feminism amidst groundbreaking nominations for other women.
To top it all off, some awards shows graciously reward their winners with thousands of dollars worth of gifts. It’s nice to know that while at least half of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, wealthy celebrities can put the real world on pause for a gifted trip to paradise.