The 2019 Oscars feel like a step back after so much progress in the last couple years, but there are glimmers of hope.
The 2018-2019 awards season has finally come to a close and like every other season, it feels like looking at an empty room after a party. It’s still and lifeless with reminders of what came before — all the decorations and glamour are now worn down, tattered, and strewn on the floor. And all you can do is ask yourself, was it worth it? But in an odd way, this season has felt like an even bigger let down than before.
After two consecutive years of some of the greatest Best Picture fields in recent memories, The Academy backslid to one that still had great progressive picks — Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, Roma — mixed with complete regressions — Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book. It seems that unless one of the movies in the former group won that the season would be a letdown.
And we thought it could happen. After one of the most inspired picks in their history with Moonlight, the Oscars went the still unique, but more consensus choice of The Shape of Water — had Get Out and Lady Bird not been in the field this win would have gone over a lot better. There was hope that Roma would finally break the barrier and be the first Foreign Language movie to win Best Picture — and the first released by a streaming platform.
But the majority male and white Academy went with the choice we should have seen all along: Green Book. It is a movie for them, by them, and meant to ease their conscience. Truly, I don’t think Green Book is a cinematic disaster on the level of Bohemian Rhapsody, another Oscar-friendly choice. But it winning 30 years after Driving Miss Daisy won speaks volumes as both movies have a fatal misunderstanding of the themes it’s playing with.
Let’s go back and start with the good.
Diversity wins
Regina King won Best Supporting Actress for Barry Jenkins’ adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel of the same name. Not only was she deserving, If Beale Street Could Talk is a movie that breaks every convention we know about the Academy.
Even though I have large issues with the movie, I do believe Mahershala Ali deserved to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar from that lineup. His performance is the movie’s saving grace and I’m happy that he, of all people, has two Oscars. He’s also only the second black actor to win more than one competitive Oscar.
While the Oscars love veterans, Olivia Colman — a relative unknown in the US — won for a comedic performance as a queer Queen Ann in Yorgos Lanthimos’ offbeat The Favourite upsetting Glenn Close who extends her record for the most Oscar nominations without a win for any living actor or actress.
Black Panther become the first Marvel movie to win an Oscar — picking up three for Costume Design, Production Design, and Original Score. The winners of those first two categories were the first black women to win non-acting Oscars in 30 years.
Finally, Spike Lee won his first competitive Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman. Not only that, he received it from Samuel L. Jackson.
The Oscars are making good and interesting choices. But with that, messy traditional biopic Bohemian Rhapsody led the night in wins and overly simplified take on race Green Book won Best Picture.
The dichotomy is apparent.
The Academy is changing, but reminders of its past are still there
It was apparent when last year two of the four acting Oscars went to a film with a similarly shaky take on race and the other two won for playing real-life characters in biopics, but Get Out and Call Me By Your Name won the screenplay categories and The Shape of Water won Best Picture.
The efforts to diversify the Academy by former president Cheryl Boone Isaacs have had a noticeable effect on the nominees and winners. But the old guard of the Academy still has a great effect. This year, however, their effect was seen in the biggest category of the night. That’s why it was so much more visible.
I’m hopeful for the Oscars. So many barriers were broken. A superhero movie — one led by a black cast — was finally nominated for Best Picture. A black-and-white Mexican Netflix movie was nominated for — and nearly won — Best Picture. Three of the four acting winners were people of color and three of the four acting winners played queer characters.
But there is still a long way to go.
And if the Academy (and ABC) could stop obsessing over ratings, which will continue to fall as live tv continues to fall, there are sensible changes they can make to get there. My suggestions:
- Continue to diversify the voting body: Strides have been made to diversify the voting body, but it’s slow going. The Academy has to add more women and people of color to specific branches — directing, producing, and below-the-line, in particular.
- Expand Best Picture to ten nominees (again): More nominees means more chances that big-budget tentpoles, smaller indie movies, and more diverse movie are nominated.
- Shorten the season: Awards season lasts too long. If the Oscars were made earlier, there would be less time for campaigning and glad-handling and more chances for surprises that aren’t just following earlier award bodies.
I love the Oscars because I love film. The way to fix the Oscars is for the Academy to begin loving film again, as well. You do that by adding fresh new voices and giving them more chances to have their work recognized. Let’s relish in the positive, but know that there’s work to be done. If this year has shown us anything, it’s that we, the film lovers, have a voice to change things.
Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.