With the release of the nominees for this year’s Oscars came the usual complaining about films that weren’t nominated and performances that were snubbed. I, for one, think that Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler was the best male performance of the year, despite Gyllenhaal’s name missing from the nominees list. This year race has taking the forefront in the nominee discussion. Selma, Ava DuVernay’s chronicle of Martin Luther King’s campaign to secure equal voting rights through a march from Selma to Montgmery, Alabama, was missing from many categories. Nominated for Best Picture, DuVernay herself was not nominated, nor any of the acting performances. The only other category in which Selma appears is Best Song, for “Glory”.
The question to be asked is: is the Academy racist? Spike Lee believes that because of 12 Years a Slave’s success last year, the period for appreciating “black film” is over for a while. Lee says that “It’s in cycles of every 10 years. Once every 10 years or so I get calls from journalists about how people are finally accepting black films.” Lee keeps his expectations low, anticipating the worst from Hollywood. To be fair, the Academy is made up of primarily old, white men. Not exactly a diversity club for sure. With DuVanay’s nomination, the Academy could have made history, recognizing for the first time an African-American woman director.
Despite Lee’s opinion, should we assume that Selma’s absence is racist? Over the years, great directors and actors have been omitted by the Academy. Among these names are Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart, Spike Lee himself, and Judy Garland. Black and white alike, these talented and revered entertainers are without award from the Academy. More recently, in 2013, Ben Affleck’s Argo was nominated for Best Picture, while Affleck himself was absent from the Best Director category. Perhaps it was a race issue (we certainly know that race relations are not perfect in the US), but the politics of nominees seems to have an ebb and flow of its own derision. Perhaps there is a rhyme and reason all of its own, but perhaps it’s simply an extension of the never understandable ways of Hollywood.