Well, the time has come.
2019 was a great year for cinema. Naturally, I’d assume that great movies would be recognized by the Academy Award of Merit i.e. the Oscars. It’s 2020 but I really should know better by now.
The lack of women nominees in the “Academy Award for Best Director” category was striking and obvious. Again. And, before someone says “Well maybe they should make better movies”. That’s definitely not the reason women aren’t getting nominated. Greta Gerwig’s Little Women was nominated for the “Academy Award for Best Picture”, “Best Adapted Screenplay” and FOUR more Oscars. But, obviously, Greta Gerwig should definitely make a better movie. She was left out and the movie clearly didn’t direct itself!
In 2019, directors who happened to be women broke records. More women have directed more movies and they’ve generated more money than ever! Plus, they’re they’re generally critically acclaimed. Why do women keep being shut out from the directing category? Why is the Academy so afraid to recognize their talent? To this day, only one woman has won the Oscar for directing, and that was Kathryn Bigelow in 2009. The last woman who was nominated was Greta Gerwig in 2017.
There were a number of considerable snubs, mostly in the acting categories. Both Taron Egerton and Akwafina were both robbed of their nominations in Best Supporting Actor and Actress category even though each won Golden Globes in Rocketman and The Farewell. Jennifer Lopez was also snubbed in the Supporting Actress Category for her work in Hustlers, despite her receiving critical acclaim and other nominations. A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood was shut out and so was The Farewell.
Even then, that’s not the worst part. What almost made me faint was realizing that the most nominated movie—with a whopping 11 nominations—ended up being Joker. I could go on and on all day about this, so let’s just leave it at that. There were so many things that went wrong. The Academy, once more, chose to ignore the vast talent and diversity that 2019 brought to cinema. They opted to recognize mostly white and male stories.
While we could go on and on about the bad, let’s focus on the good: Parasite. Bong Joon-Ho’s latest movie has made history by becoming the first South Korean movie to make it to the Oscars. The film received the “Academy Award for Best Picture” nomination and the “Academy Award for Best International Feature Film” nomination. It’s undoubtedly the strongest movie out of all the Best Picture nominees. I wish it would win all six of its nominations come February 9th.
My favorite movie of 2019, The Lighthouse, received one nomination for the “Academy Award for Best Cinematography” It was incredibly surprising but very welcome and it made my entire day. Florence Pugh received a nomination for her work in Little Women, but I also like to think that it’s also for Midsommar. Rian Johnson received his first Oscar nomination for “Best Original Screenplay” for his movie Knives Out, which was one of the most surprising movies of 2019. For the first time in years, the “Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film” category wasn’t dominated by Disney. Instead, we have standout nominees like I Lost My Body and Klaus.
The 2020 Oscar nominations weren’t surprising at all, but it’s still disappointing. After the 2018 Oscars things, seemed to look. We had more diversity and different types of movies that were being recognized, but we seem to have regressed quite significantly. What we should remember is that in the end, the Oscars don’t really mean anything. Just because your favorite movie wasn’t nominated it doesn’t mean it’s bad. The Academy is still filled with old white men who don’t want to move past the old traditions, but they have been adding new diverse members who hopefully know to break tradition.
In the end, we’ll see how the night of February 9th, 2020 goes. Check out the rest of the nominations in the official Oscar Nominations 2020 List: Nominees by Category.
You should also hear some more of my endearing ranting through Film Posers, available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.