by BriOUT
The Independent Spirit Award nominations have been announced and there was a lot of love for Keep the Lights On including a Best Feature nomination. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Bernie, Gayby and How to Survive a Plague also got some lovin'.
Meanwhile, the Gotham Awards have been given and Plague came away with a win.
EW’s Awards guru, Anthony Breznican, offers up his early thoughts on the Oscars. It's worth scrolling through the whole gallery, but I was especially happy to see that he has Wallflower listed as a film that should be considered. "It reminds us that great friends can turn the worst of times into good ol' days."
And over at the L.A. Times Oscar site, The Envelope, Glenn Whipp implores voters to make room for Ezra Miller. Whipp calls it "…easily one of the season’s most dynamic performances." I'm glad it's not just me.
Could we be hearing the words, "Academy Award nominee - Frank Ocean" in our future? It's possible.
Anthony Hopkins is the latest to join the "Oscar Bah-Humbug" club. Speaking to the Huffington Post, the Oscar winner said, "You know, kissing the backside of the authorities that can make or break it; I can't stand all that. I find it nauseating to watch and I think it's disgusting to behold." At least Joaquin Phoenix isn't so lonely anymore.
Let's get the depressing fact out of the way first.
For the past two years, the Oscar for Best Picture has gone to films (The Artist and The King's Speech) with absolutely no cast members of color. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
The good news… In the past twelve years, this has happened only two other times; A Beautiful Mind (2001) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). In every other instance, the winning films have had at least one major character (and, subsequently, actor) of color. Often, a lot more than just one.
More good news… Since 1995, there hasn't been a year in which at least one Best Picture nominee couldn't boast a major character of color. In the vast majority of cases, more than one Best Picture nominee that could make that claim.
Even more good news… There hasn't been a year since 1995 that no actors/actresses of color were nominated. And in eight of those twelve years, at least one person of color took home the gold.
Yes, the Academy Award landscape has become increasingly diverse and reflective of the world the rest of us live in. Boneheaded and jaw-dropping decisions persist (Pollyanna this article isn't) but one could make the very strong case that Oscar has arrived (and built a house with a swimming pool) firmly in the 21st Century.
1995 is a significant year in the diversification of Oscar. That year, when not a single person of color received a nod in the major categories and only one out of 166 total nominations went to a person of color -- Diane Houston, an African-American nominee for the short film Tuesday Morning Ride -- all hell broke loose.
The very loud and very public outcry about this culminated with Jessie Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition organizing protests at ABC affiliates across the country on Oscar night.
No one can say for sure that the protests worked. Maybe the newer members of the Academy brought this desire for varied stories with them. After all, there were nominees of color before 1995 (and even a few winners) though nowhere near as many as there have been post '95.
Now matter how, exactly, this came about, nowadays, it would be more shocking to see an all-white list than not. The Oscars no longer look like the film community version of the Republican National Convention. That is progress absolutely worth celebrating.
This year gives us the gift of a number of films that guide us to even greater heights of diversity and understanding.
Lincoln and Django Unchained tackle the difficult and emotional subject of slavery in (presumably) very different ways. It's great to see filmmakers not ignoring the topic but pushing for new stories to tell within that framework. MORE.
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