It’s officially April, signifying that the Oscars are upon us. Any other year we would be two months past the Oscars, anxiously trying to predict what emerging films will be early contenders for the next year. However, this year, we see a very different timeline. The award show has been pushed back almost three months to April 25th opposed from it's usual occurrence in early February or late January. While this has complicated the normal process and expectations for what films would be recognized, it has had its benefits, allowing many films that premiered within the first month of 2021 to be eligible for the Oscars. Another notable difference in the expectations for this year’s honorees is that due to the ongoing pandemic, most of the films that were released this past year were released on a streaming service alongside a small (in most cases) theatrical release. Many film studios are unsure of how to proceed into the future, with some studios like Warner Brothers making sure that all films released into theaters in 2021 are also simultaneously being released on HBO Max. This has caused a collective industry consideration of the importance of the theatrical experience in the presentation of films (something I could write a whole article on), and it is yet to be observed how that will affect the future of the cinemas. While these aspects have proved to have their considerable challenges, they also have had their benefits. On March 15th, Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jonas presented the official Oscar nominations, announcing a slew of history breaking firsts and surprises, with a few snubs and disappointments.
The 2021 Oscar nominations provided us with a lot to be happy about. The number one thing that was made apparent from this year’s nominees is how diverse most categories were. We saw Steven Yeun become the first Asian-American actor to receive a nomination in the best actor category as well as a record number of non-white nominees in the acting categories. This is a terrific improvement on behalf of the Academy, which has a long history of predominantly honoring white films and actors. Of course, this is no surprise for an institution created in 1929, but even in recent years the Academy has chosen to celebrate films that perpetuate racist stereotypes like Green Book and Crash (both of which won best picture within the last 15 years), instead of films that are made by artists of color who are telling new and authentic stories. One of the most famous examples of this is in 1990 when the film “Driving Miss Daisy,” a film about the unlikely friendship between an elderly southern white lady and her black chauffeur, won best picture over Spike Lee’s incredibly topical “Do the Right Thing,” a film that wasn’t even nominated. Even as recently as 2015, “#OscarsSoWhite” became a trending hashtag on social media, illuminating the ways in which not only the Oscars shut out POC artists and contributors, but film producers and film sets as well. The Oscar nominations were notably diverse not just in race, but in gender as well. For the first time ever, we have a best director field where we have two female nominees, Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman and Chloe Zhao for Nomadland. In a past year dominated by films written and directed by women, it is very refreshing to see the Academy recognize female filmmakers, who the Academy has almost always ignored over their male counterparts. All in all, this year’s Oscar nominations prove to be a positive change on behalf of the Academy, but the fight for equality in the film industry is far from over.
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