While many debate if spring, summer, fall or winter are the worst seasons, I say it is the awards season.
With the writers’ and actors’ unions’ strikes shaking up the entertainment industry in the latter half of 2023, awards shows such as the Emmys and the Oscars were pushed back from their usual start dates, causing Americans to be bombarded with them since the new year began.
I always dread any awards shows, as I feel they are antiquated popularity contests that routinely have proven themselves to disproportionately favor white men to be nominated and win for so long.
According to a USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative analysis, of 13,253 nominees since 1929, only 17% were women. That number drops to less than 2% for women of color.
To clear up the obvious, I do not think there should be identity quotas to meet when in the nominating process. What I do believe is that women have made significant contributions to film throughout the past nearly 100 years and have surely been underrepresented in the awards show.
While great strides have been made, and women have increasingly become nominated and won in a variety of categories, the 2024 Oscars have disappointed again in a big way.
If someone had to pick a single movie in 2023 that takes the cake in terms of pop cultural significance, it would hands-down be Barbie. The movie single-handedly transformed a somewhat problematic brand of dolls into a feminist icon.
Though comedy movies are routinely discounted at the Oscars for lack of depth,
Barbie is not surface-level by any means. The movie interweaves personal and touching messaging that has resonated with women across the country and the world.
The problem is, “the movie,” did not do anything. Greta Gerwig did. Guess which one got nominated? The movie, not Gerwig.
To say that I am disappointed is a severe understatement. Barbie is a textbook director’s movie. The vision needed to make such a massive transformative cultural phenomenon happen is indescribable.
The movie itself certainly deserved the nomination, but the disconnect shown by the academy to underscore Gerwig’s hard work is saddening.
I’m glad that the movie scored nominations in other categories, most notably Ryan Gosling, who played Ken, for Best Supporting Actor. I think the anger at Gosling displayed by some online has been misdirected. He released a statement just a few hours after the nominations were released saying that he wished Gerwig, and Margot Robbie, who played Barbie, were also nominated in their respective categories.
I agree with Gosling, and I do not believe this should be an either/or situation. As Ken, Gosling excelled in every scene he was in. He was easily the most relatable character in any movie of 2023, and I’m glad he got nominated. Unfortunately, he was caught in the crossfire of a poor decision by the academy.
It feels worse when just looking at the Best Director category in the Oscar’s history. Only three women have ever won the award. Directing is something that I feel should be appreciated more, as actors and actresses often take the spotlight while directors stand behind the scenes.
Gerwig has had an especially rough time at the Oscars, with her other two prominent films Lady Bird (2018) and Little Women (2019) not netting her a win, the latter of which did not even bear her a nomination. It only won one Oscar, for Best Costume Design.
While I understand that 2018 and 2019 were especially standout years in the film industry in terms of the past decade or so, it is still disappointing to see her not get any recognition for three brilliant movies.
I wish that, as a society, we would stop taking so much stake in the shows. All art is subjective and by zeroing in on the opinions of some prominent bigwigs behind a black curtain, we lose ourselves.
But so far as these shows still matter, it is safe to say that a misstep was made and the public scrutiny is valid. Barbie now, Barbie forever.
Nathan Hope can be contacted at
nhope@kscequinox.com
