There have been a lot of backlash against the "so white" Academy Awards 2020 nominees lineups, but my question is: was 2020 a good year for movies from/about people of color? To be honest, my answer is "not the best year".
At this precise moment, the only remarkable movies about people of color that come to my mind are Dolemite Is My Name, Waves, Queen & Slim, Parasite and The Farewell. From all these, only Parasite managed to be recognized by the Academy - no wonder why, since it is such a worldwide phenomenon! Of course Lupita Nyong'o was THIS CLOSE of a nomination for Best Actress for Us and Dolemite Is My Name would be a lock for Best Costume Design (Ruth E. Carter) and Eddie Murphy could have been a Best Actor nominee. As for The Farewell, I'm still wondering how Zhao Shuzhen missed Best Supporting Actress and how Lulu Wang missed Best Original Screenplay - it was one of the very best movies of 2020 by far, yet I believe not enough AMPAS members have seen it! As for Queen & Slim and Waves, they weren't able to build Oscar buzz somehow and it still is a mystery to me: Taylor Russell and Sterling K. Brown's performances in Waves are Oscar caliber ones and Queen & Slim getting in Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing or Best Song. But solid Oscar buzz... none of them!
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| Image 1 - Lupita Nyong'o as Red in Us |
Yes... maybe Academy members were lazy and they only watched the typically Oscar baity movies and they missed the screenings of smaller productions, but if we look back to previous years, we state 2019 was a specially weak year for "color movies" indeed (movies nominated in Best International Film AKA Best Foreign Picture are not included unless they scored anywhere else):
- 2011 - The Help (Best Picture nom), A Beautiful Life and A Separation (nominated for Best Foreign Picture, but it also scored a Best Original Screenplay nod)
- 2012 - Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Life of Pi (3 Best Picture nominated movies) and Flight
- 2013 - 12 Years a Slave (which actually won Best Picture)
- 2014 - Selma (Best Picture nom)
- 2015 - Straight Outta Compton
- 2016 - Moonlight (Best Picture winner), Fences, Hidden Figures (2 Best Picture nominated movies), Lion (at some point and a Best Picture nominee) and Loving
- 2017 - Get Out (Best Picture nominee), Roman J. Israel, Mudbound and The Shape of Water (Best Picture winner)
- 2018 - Green Book (Best Picture winner), BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther, Roma (3 Best Picture nominated movies) and If Beale Street Could Talk
- 2019 - Parasite (Best Picture nominee, at the moment) and Harriet
And if we compare this year with 2016, 2017 and 2018... yes, it is a tragic year for movies about people of color. But what really intrigues me is the absence of a female director in the Best Director nominees shortlist - Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Alma Har'el (Honey Boy) or Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers) - since it was such a great year female directors/auteurs. From the female directors I mentioned, only Gerwig managed to get an Oscar nomination this year (and that was for Best Adapted Screenplay).
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| Image 2 - Alma Har'el directing Noah Jupe in Honey Boy |
To be honest, I kind understand the absence of POC in the acting nominees shortlist or the lack of diversity in all the categories overall - no movie about "people of color" was a particularly strong Oscar contender this year besides Parasite. Only The Farewell looked strong enough to break the above the line categories (and maybe Us), but none of the others I would say. What really shocks me is the absence of female auteurs! 2019 was great for female directors and I just can't stand having Todd Phillips nominated in Best Director for Joker, while Gerwig, Wang or Heller would make for more deserving nominees instead of him. I won't dare to say Scorsese (The Irishman), Joon-ho (Parasite), Mendes (1917) or Tarantino (OUATIHollywood) aren't deserving of a Best Director nomination and maybe I wouldn't be writing about this topic if I had Waititi (Jojo Rabbit) or Baumbach (Marriage Story) nominated instead of Phillips, but female directors do really struggle to crack the Best Director nominees shortlist! And I'm not saying this because they're women, I'm saying this because I do believe they were Oscar caliber.
So, in my opinion, I don't think the Academy should pick the Oscar nominees based on the fact they are POC and 2019 was a specially tricky year because of the lack of POC contenders in the top Oscar buzzy movies - Lupita Nyong'o must have been close to a nomination, but horror genre bias was a big disadvantage for sure; Murphy could get in, but Best Actor is a bloodbath; Zhao would be great, but A24 seemed to have sacrificed The Farewell in favor of Uncut Gems awards campaign; any member of Parasite ensemble, specially Song Kang-ho, but the movie does feel like a balanced ensemble movie; and as for Jennifer Lopez for Hustlers... overrated and I've always predicted her snub. Not that many worthy options to me honest, specially considering Taylor Russell (Waves), Sterling K. Brown (Waves) and Octavia Spencer (Luce) Oscar's chances never really materialized!
As for female auteurs: they are the real victims of this year's Oscar edition, not POC contenders!
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| Image 3 - Emma Watson, Greta Gerwig, Saoirse Ronan and Florence Pugh on the set of Little Women |
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