Beyond The Lens: Oscars 2019 Edition
The 91st Academy Awards will be held on February 24, 2019
Modern-Day Tokenism:
Black Panther, the run-of-the-mill Marvel movie, got seven Oscar nominations this year, including Best Picture. Many people, such as myself, believe that the critically acclaimed film would have had an entirely different reception had the cast not been made up of a black majority. People like to pretend that Black Panther is a masterpiece and jump on the Wakanda-bandwagon, but the movie itself is objectively average, and nothing more than that. Along with Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman got nominated for six Academy Awards, a film which in the same vein as Bohemian Rhapsody (3 nominations) is often criticized for historical inaccuracies and politically correct preaching. While both are by no means bad films, they are not Oscar-worthy. The Academy Awards are supposed to represent the best of the best, showcasing the peak that cinema has to offer.
The moment movies are recognized for their impact on culture and political achievements rather than technical and objective success is the moment that the Oscars stop being awards for cinema and become a show for which movie can extrapolate the highest amount of political correctness.
It appears as though the Academy made great efforts to nominate as many minorities as they can. After 2015’s #OscarsSoWhite campaign, the focus has turned to the casts/crew’s ethnicity and the movies subject matter rather than the actual craft. The general reception is clear, 2014 saw 43.7 million viewers tune in; that number became 26.5 million last year and is expected to sink even lower. The Oscars are not what they used to be and have lost a big amount of their value and significance.
No Host!
The 91st Academy Awards mark the first Oscars to be “hostless.” Kevin Hart was initially signed on to host the event, but after the uncovering of alleged homophobic tweets from 2009, he was invited to leave. Since then rumors have stirred up about The Avengers handing out the awards. With more celebrities being judged and punished for things they said a decade ago, (James Gunn & Mel Gibson among others) the Academy continues to ignore the character arcs they praise so highly in movies.
Mexican Infiltration
Four native Mexicans have won the Best Director award in the past five years, (the exception being 2017, when Damien Chazelle won for La La Land). 2019 marks Alfonso Cuaron’s second Oscar nomination (he won in 2014 for Gravity). With Alejandro González Iñárritu being awarded in both 2015 and 2016, and Guillermo del Toro’s triumph last year, it’s been a great couple of years for The Three Amigos.
Missing Categories:
Best Stunt W
ork
Tom Cruise would dominate this category, as he righteously deserves to. The failed recognition of stunt work is antiquated and in this CGI-dominated Hollywood, the work that these people do should be awarded.
Best Marketing
While The Golden Trailer Awards (GTA) do exist, I believe that movie trailers and film marketing deserve more recognition than they get. With movies like Deadpool and The Handmaiden having such unique and creative marketing, a new category should reward them.
Best Motion-Capture/Voice Performance
With people like Andy Serkis and Benedict Cumberbatch having famously portrayed motion capture CGI characters, and voice performances becoming more and more common, a new category should acknowledge these popular acting methods.
5 Movies that should have been nominated
Searching
Best Editing & Production Design
This low budget movie with a simple enough premise managed to take a gimmick and create a great movie, all of which was made possible by the unique editing and the masterful production.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Best Documentary Feature
Mr. Rogers’ immense impact on the world was the premise for this documentary that will leave you in tears and questioning if humanity deserves a man as good as him.
Eighth Grade
Best Original Screenplay & Director
Bo Burnham’s directing proved to be stellar, and the accurate portrayal of awkward middle school life shown in this movie is masterful and extremely life-like.
Hereditary
Best Actress
This moody horror movie has quickly turned into an either you love it or hate it type of movie, but the one thing everyone can agree on is: Toni Collette’s acting was undeniably one of the best achievements of the year, and her snub is an insult to her performance.
Sorry to Bother You
Best Director & Picture
This highly stylized movie is filled with social commentary, funny dialogue, an incredibly creative story, and a very original premise. The fact that is was not nominated is very confusing.