A few weeks ago the nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards were announced, and I’m happy to say that for the most part, I was pretty satisfied.
Now despite my overall satisfaction with the nominations, or at least understanding the reason behind their nomination, it’s not the same with a number of other people. The biggest controversy coming out of this year’s Academy Awards is again a total lack of women in the Best Director category.
There were more female helmed movies this past year than ever before, but perhaps most notable was Little Women, directed by Greta Gerwig. Little Women was the only female-directed movie of the Best Picture nominees, and it was certainly the one that people were hoping would provide some female representation in the Director category. However, when the Best Director nominations were announced on Jan. 13, there was no Gerwig, and no women, period. Expectedly, the Academy received their fair share of backlash and complaints about this, in particular for snubbing Gerwig.
Here’s the part where some of the seven people who read my articles might want to push me in front of a moving train: I am not of the belief that the Academy should be under any sort of obligation to nominate people or films because of their gender, race, religion or anything of the sort. I’m not implying that they always do this, but I think the Academy members should nominate people based on pure, blind merit. Not that it’s realistic, but if there was some way that the voters could not know who directed the film, and vote solely on how good of a job the director did, I might even be in favor of that.
Many people argue that we should deliberately nominate a more diverse selection of movies or artists for the Academy Awards because it’s a good way to improve representation and inclusivity, but I’d say that it also damages some of the credibility of the movies and the artists. Giving praise to a movie solely because of some sort of social or political relevance outside of the actual filmmaking can be patronizing. An example that comes to mind is with the nominees for the 2013 Academy Awards, when at least 2 members of the Academy admitted to voting for 12 Years a Slave to win Best Picture without having even seen it, just because they thought it was the movie that “should win.” This is terrible for a number of reasons, but the two that stick out to me the most are A) That a filmmaker would have to accept that some people only voted for their movie because of their personal identity and not their actual work or craftsmanship (not to mention that the voter may not have even seen their movie), and B) that the credibility of the movie actually being good is now totally compromised. Likewise, it pisses me off when people dismiss movies like 12 Years a Slave or Moonlight for winning Best Picture just because of their subject matter, or the race or sexuality of their protagonists, when to me, they were indisputably the best and most deserving movies of their respective years. However, when voters are pressured or actually admit to having voted for a movie or artist based on some sort of diversity quota, it gives these doubters very valid reason to write off what is usually a stellar job. Merit should be the only basis on which people vote for what is supposed to be the “best” work.
That. Being. Said.
I think, unequivocally, that Greta Gerwig 100% deserved a Best Director nomination this year. Little Women as a whole was easily in my Top Five Films of 2019, and Gerwig earned a spot in my Top Five directing jobs of the year as well.
Writing off Greta Gerwig’s snub off as purely misogyny is not, despite what some internet trolls will tell you, a baseless accusation. The idea that some people deliberately vote against diversity regardless of merit is just as likely as people deliberately voting for it. The history of the Oscars speaks for itself, and we’ll touch on a greater need for diversity in Hollywood later. However, if you’re going to claim that Gerwig deserved a nomination, which again I certainly agree with, you should have done the bare minimum requirement of seeing not only Little Women but also at least one of the other movies that actually was nominated for Best Director. Claiming that Little Women deserves the nomination over a movie that you haven’t even seen isn’t exactly fair judgement. And in case you’re curious about my selection, I’d say that Joon-Ho, Mendes, Scorsese and Tarantino all deserve their nominations, but I’d easily swap out Todd Phillips for Greta Gerwig. I enjoyed Joker quite a bit, but most of that film’s merit comes from Joaquin Phoenix, whereas I think Gerwig’s direction was one of the strongest components of her movie. Little Women is not only excellent when it comes to it’s writing, acting and cinematography, but every scene feels needed and complete, flowing with unique style and directorial vision.
Despite what I said earlier, I’m very much on the side of thinking there’s a greater need for more diversity and opportunity in filmmaking. I just think it’s Hollywood’s job, not the Oscars. The lack of female directors and directors of color is a negative thing for every reason you likely already know, obviously including the blatant lack of employment for non white individuals. The idea that for whatever reasons, there are massive demographics of people who don’t get a fair shot at making movies because of their gender, race, religion, or some other factor is a terrifying thing. It’s objectively limiting the possibility of receiving good products directly or indirectly because of some sort of prejudice. As a spectator and a consumer, the only thing I concern myself with is receiving the best product possible. I want good movies. That’s it. If certain groups of people are being excluded from filmmaking, that’s not only disrespectful to them, but also to the film watchers who want good, original content.
It’d be like walking into a hospital with a gunshot wound. You need care immediately, and as you writhe on the floor, gasping for air, you hear a nurse say “I’m sorry but all 49% of our doctors are busy.” You barely manage to ask “What about the other 51%? They can definitely do just as good a job.” Your time is short, and as you begin to fade out of consciousness, you hear the nurse say, “Oh… we don’t let them do this sort of thing. Just ‘cuz. Lol.” With your final seconds you think the only thing that a rational person would think:“Are you out of your f***ing mind?”
Okay, maybe a bit dramatic, but the point still stands: everyone loses when not everyone can make movies.
Look, obviously this situation is dissatisfying, but not only am I optimistic for the future, I also don’t think we should let this affect us too much now. One of the main benefits of an Oscar nomination is that it brings more attention to a movie, and more people are going to see it. And when a movie succeeds financially, it means more movies will imitate it, and more movies by the same filmmakers are going to get made. If you loved Little Women, go see it again, and bring a friend. And if you haven’t seen it, go now. It rocks. •
