First, the good news:
#HairLove is Oscar nominated!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/so8NEnrmDr
— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) January 13, 2020
And yet, the Oscars remain very much a white men’s club, which wouldn’t matter if so many peoples’ livelihoods weren’t riding on the attention. When a director / actor / writer / production company can be rewarded with precious millions worth of attention, or relegated to ‘that arthouse streaming filmschool hobby stuff’, it’s not just entertainment…
To @TheAcademy, You disqualified Nigeria’s first-ever submission for Best International Feature because its in English. But English is the official language of Nigeria. Are you barring this country from ever competing for an Oscar in its official language? https://t.co/X3EGb01tPF
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) November 4, 2019
Last year their excuse was that Netflix is American despite Roma being a Mexican movie, but now Bong Joon-Ho has played the room so well that his 100% Korean production is getting the English language movie treatment with no acknowledgement about how isolated everything else is
— The Occupation is Bad (@MenshevikM) January 13, 2020
Baby steps — people got twitter where they can be bitter…
The Academy narrowly avoiding an Oscars So White by nominating exactly one performer of color in an acting category, but nominating her for playing Harriet Tubman, feels like an on-the-nose joke in an episode of The Critic.
— Emily VanDerWerff (@tvoti) January 13, 2020
Black people can have a little slavery movie nomination, as a treat.
— Lil Uzi Hurt (@lostblackboy) January 13, 2020
Based on what Oscar voters seem to prefer from black actors and films (oppression, slavery, white saviorism and magical negroes), I seriously think I’ve created the perfect black Oscar-winning movie.
It’s called Harriet Tubman Time Machine.
More details tomorrow.
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) January 14, 2020
(Harriot’s post here.)
Semi-Respite Open Thread: So, About Those Oscar Nominations…Post + Comments (85)