Reflection on the Oscars
As I watched the all the people file up and receive their little golden man for their various achievements I was struck at the differences of this year’s 80th Oscars compared to previous years.
First of all, I have never seen this many international films in the spotlight, this was most notable when several accepters burst into their native tongue to utter their thank you speeches. I loved it! Even some of the other people that I watched the Oscars with commented on the diversity of the actors and actresses there at the show.
Yes, there was a lot of international representation in the house, but where, oh where, were the people of color and women?
This query popped into my head as I watched category after category that announced White men as nominees and winners. I thought of my Feminist Media Making classes readings, and how I am being slowly introduced to the achievements of women that were there all along, just not visible behind the achievements of their (white) male counterparts.
I was especially interested when the nominees for Best Director were announced, and surprise, surprise, they were all men…and all White! I found myself thinking back to my class readings as I struggled to recall a director who was a women. I know one of my favorite directors, Mira Nair, was nominated for an Oscar for her movie Salaam Bombay! But as for women who have won an Oscar for Best Director, I could think of none. I checked Wikipedia.org to see if any woman has been nominated for this award and have won it…answer? None. Not one single woman has been nominated and not one single man of color has been nominated. Yikes! 80 years of the Oscar and still nothing for “minorities.�
I recently have decided that I would like to shoot a documentary one day, and it would be awesome if it made it to the Oscars, but there is a long way to go until I get there. I couldn’t help but remember when Cuba Gooding Jr., Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won their Oscars and how happy I was for them. Even to this day, Berry’s acceptance speech brings tears to my eyes, it took 74 years for a woman of color to win an Oscar for the Best Actress and who knows how long it will take for a woman (of color) to be nominated for and win an Oscar for Best Director.