I love movies. I love the stories they tell, the characters they bring to life, the way they invoke humor and sadness and a complete range of intense emotions. I love watching films, reviewing films, and even reading reviews of films. And I absolutely love awards shows, especially the Oscars. My closest friends will tell you I am obsessed with Oscar trivia, and I pride myself on the capacity to memorize even the most obscure Oscar-related knowledge. You can basically ask who is the oldest, youngest, and even tallest actor who has won an Oscar and I will have an answer for that in a heartbeat ( tallest Oscar winner is John Wayne, in case you were wondering. Yeah, I’m that kind of obsessed).
However, just because I love the movies and awards shows, doesn’t mean I don’t notice their flaws. And boy, does the film industry have some very, very annoying flaws.
Many of these flaws can be found in their representations of women and minorities. From the sexism on film to the fact that minorities are rarely given lead roles to a whole bunch of really, really sad statistics about women in directing/writing positions, Hollywood has a BIG problem with giving people who aren’t white men the opportunity to create and tell their stories on film.
This year’s Oscars made that fact pretty evident. This year’s Oscar nominations have become controversial for their lack of diversity. There are no men or women of color in either the acting, writing, or directing categories, and women have likewise been neglected. The hashtag #OscarSoWhite began to trend as people criticized the lack of minorities in one of the most prominent award shows in the entertainment industry. Many criticized the fact that Selma, the Martin Luther King Jr. biopic, received only two nominations. Others were frustrated that Gillian Flynn, the author of Gone Girl, lost out on a nomination for adapting the screenplay, and Jennifer Siebel Newsom, director of Miss Representation (a documentary on women and gender that’s really worth watching) wrote the following in response to the nominations:
“I am disappointed at the lack of diversity in the Academy Award nominations announced this morning. Not a single female director, screenwriter, or cinematographer were nominated. In addition, no people of color received acting nominations. We have got to do a better job of rewarding the accomplishments of diverse media makers and celebrating diversity in our media. Otherwise, we will continue to see the same tired status quo. The way we are represented matters.”
Newsom’s statement really helps highlight the debate around diversity in Hollywood films.
It’s not that I don’t think these films aren’t great or that they don’t deserve their nominations. No one is alleging that the members of the Academy Awards committee are a bunch of card carrying racists.
Rather, this is about examining why there are so few films with strong characters from multiple backgrounds. This is about looking at data that proves that the majority of filmmakers, film executives and award committee members are white men and thinking “Isn’t it at least a little problematic that women and minorities arent evenly represented on this list?”
This is about examining the kinds of films that are judged as great and realizing that we arent including different perspectives. It means that the majority of minority kids in are growing up and they don’t see people like themselves, or stories they identify with in mainstream media. That the same kinds of films and the same kinds of stories are rewarded, and Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, etc, are subtly told that their stories aren’t “marketable” or “good enough for mainstream America.” And honestly, that is pretty sad.
I hope that this year, we can spark more than discussion on this issue. I hope we can promote actual change. I hope we can break down the real barriers that are holding so many people back from creating new and innovative movies, and I hope that rewarding women and people of color becomes the staus quo, rather than an anomaly.
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