Oscars' nod to diversity

The Oscar nominations for this year was unveiled yesterday with eight movies nominated for Best Picture awards this year, including Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite, Green Book, Roma, A Star is Born and Vice.

The Favourite and Roma led with 10 nominations each, while A Star is Born, Vice and Black Panther scored eight nominations each. Despite the woeful lack of women directors in the Best Picture and Best Director lists, this year’s nominations is a variegated mosaic of inclusivity in the era of Trumpism and harks on diversity, racial inclusion and representation on celluloid.

In recent times, the liberal platform has been observed to take strong political stances with the 2018 Oscars being heavy on anti-Trump tackling, sexual harassment, LGBT rights, and immigration reforms. And this year, the pattern seems to continue. For instance, five of the eight films nominated for the Best Picture are LGBTQ-inclusive and is perhaps the highest number to have ever been nominated in a single year. Of course, the nominations and the awards are also based on a cause-effect relationship with liberal politics and social movements. Film critic Mayank Shekhar feels that Oscars are not just film awards, but also as a very political award as it reflects the political climate of America as well. “For variety of reasons, and it’s not just movies, but also the whole world looking at films being celebrated of a certain kind. And diversity has been always been an essential part of the American society, something that is being challenged by the current President. So it’s always been the political statement.

And you saw that happening in the recently previous years too in terms of the speeches that get made, and the stuff that gets spoken about. So it’s quite in line with how we have always seen Oscars to be in that sense.” And as The Hollywood Reporter elucidates, “In several tight best picture contests, the more overtly liberal contender won. Hence the press-glorifying Spotlight beat epic Western The Revenant in 2016 and the same-sex relationship drama Moonlight beat a more old-fashioned love story, La La Land, in 2017.” Film critic Raja Sen believes that cinema has become more diverse and more narratives from different voices are emerging.

“So when you look at what is critically relevant or what has got any sort of claim and momentum, it has been these films.  Black Panther has been the first superhero movie to get an Oscar nomination and that’s big for many reasons. It is a commercial breach by the Oscars, as they want to be more relevant. They were thinking of adding a category called the Best Popular Film, largely for Black Panther, but now this is the film that’s out there. It is not likely a winner. But we have seen that substandard films, mediocre films like Bohemian Rhapsody getting nominations. There is absolutely no reason for that, except the film has become popular beyond the point. So clearly, the Oscars are leaning towards the more popular cinema, and this is not altogether a bad thing if it brings some films forward and makes them a part of the conversation.”

The African-American Story
Out of eight movies nominated for the Best Picture Awards, three including Green Book, Black Panther and BlacKkKlansman bring to the mainstream the Black narratives. While Green Book, a tale of the real-life relationship between black pianist Don Shirley and his Italian-American chauffeur Tony ‘Lip’ Vallelonga, focuses on overcoming racial prejudices, Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman in its comedy brings to fore the horror of the White extremism of Ku Klux Klan under Trump’s government. Meanwhile, Marvel’s Black Panther, which received seven nominations, is a convincing post-colonial subaltern narrative that challenges the racial hegemony. Mahershala Ali is nominated for the Best Actor In Supporting Role for Green Book, Regina King for the Best Actress in a Supporting Role for If Beale Street Could Talk, and Spike Lee is nominated for the Best Director for BlacKkKlansman.

Most LGBTQ-Inclusive
This year’s nominations make history as the films that made the cut have the most LGBTQ stories. While Lady Gaga’s character in A Star is Born makes a living by working in drag bars; Green Book’s Don Shirley presents an intersectional black-queer identity; Bohemian Rhapsody’s an ode to the queer rock icon Freddie Mercury;

Vice’s focus on Mary Cheney’s sexuality; and The Favourite’s female love-power triangle brings the much-awaited representation on the mainstream screens. As reported by Variety, GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said  “Today’s list of Oscar nominees reflect a banner year for LGBTQ inclusion in film and a signal that the Academy and its members are rightfully prioritising diverse storytelling at a time when audiences and critics alike are calling for more.”

Roma’s Mexican story
In the highly divisive cultural-political environment of Donald Trump’s administration, his anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant policies and strategies have left the country bordering it on the South quite dejected. So when the Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron’s autobiographical movie Roma became one of the two movies to have the highest number of Oscar nods in the season, it should become clear to Trump that Mexican lives are not inconsequential. “I think Roma is a phenomenal film and Alfonso Cuaron is one of the best directors working in the world right now. And he has created history by becoming the first man to be nominated for Best Director and the Cinematographer in the same years; he could get four Oscars at the same time. It’s a pretty crazy feat and no one has done that since Walt Disney. Roma deserves all the accolades, but the surprise element is that the three foreign films are nominated for best cinematography. So, I think that’s really interesting that the Academy is looking beyond the films that would just get nominated in the Best Foreign Films category,” reveals Raja. Cuaron on winning the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards earlier also took a dig at Trump by saying, “This bunch of Mexicans are not as bad as sometimes they are portrayed.” Moreover, Roma’s leading lady Yalitza Aparicio has created history by becoming the first Indigenous Woman to be nominated in the Best Actress in the Leading Role. The 25-year old who portrays the role of a maid in 1970’s Mexico, is Mixtec and Triqui from Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca and is a frontrunner in representation this season.