⊗ The film must be inclusive. But if you can’t see yourself on the screen, do you feel like you exist? One third of our lives are spent at work, and artists who express their creativity through cinema deserve to be seen, not just by their skin color or gender, but because when you are exposed to a different experience than your own creativity grows. Take a moment to review this list of eligible films, marking those you saw this year. Ideally, this will leave you with a clearer picture of how you are contributing to the evolution of cinema with your vows.
Your goal should be to watch all of these films, but let’s be realistic. Try to see at least 60% of them. All meet the Academy’s diversity requirements – in front of or behind the camera – which will take effect in 2024.
| Filmmakers (15) | |
|---|---|
| Radha Blank, “The Forty-Year-Old Version” (Netflix) | |
| Garrett Bradley, “Time” (Amazon Studios) | |
| Sofia Coppola, “On the Rocks” (A24 / Apple TV Plus) | |
| Gabriela Cowperthwaite, “Our Friend” (Gravitas Ventures) | |
| Mona Fastvold, “The World to Come” (Bleecker Street) | |
| Nisha Ganatra, “The High Note” (Focus Features) | |
| Patty Jenkins, “Wonder Woman 1984” (Warner Bros) | |
| Miranda July, “Kajillionaire” (Resources in focus) | |
| Gina Prince-Bythewood, “The Old Guard” (Netflix) | |
| Tara Miele, “Wander Darkly” (Lionsgate) | |
| Marjane Satrapi, “Radioactive” (Amazon Studios) | |
| Dawn Porter, “The Way I See It” (Focus Features) | |
| Julie Taymor, “The Glorias” (Roadside Attractions and LD Entertainment) | |
| Wilde’s Autumn, “Emma”. (Focus features) | |
| Robin Wright, “Land” (Focus Features) | |
| PUNCTUATION: ________________ | |
|---|---|
| 45-50 = A 40-44 = B 35-39 = C 30-34 = D |
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| LESS THAN 29 = Watch more movies before filling out your ballot. |
It is important to say what this form is NOT.
It is not a requirement that you vote for these films.
It is not a guide to a quota of diversity, so more people of color are represented in the film industry.
It is not a document designed to make voters feel guilty for liking “Green Paper” more than “Rome” or prefer “Crash” to “Brokeback Mountain”.
It is deeply believed that if voters in the industry have enough films with diverse and inclusive voices, there will never be a need for any quota or mandate, as people fear or suggest. To go further, Hollywood executives and producers will see the return on these investments from the box’s revenues. Films like “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” ($ 116 million) and “Get Out” ($ 176 million) were big hits with modest budgets, with the latter winning an Oscar for best original script (Jordan Peele).
All voting members of all organizations need to know this. If you didn’t get a minimum score of 29, it’s not that you’re a racist. The first step in all of this is to recognize that there is a problem. We don’t want to force you to see “us” – At this time, where the world is divided so meticulously, I remember one of my mentors’ words. “Don’t listen to answer, listen to understand.” You can attribute that to Donald Trump’s presidency or just look at the “foundation” of the United States of America. We are delaying the evolution of the film because we are unable to fully support a crowd of middle voices.
In fact, there is systemic racism in the entertainment industry, and Asians, blacks, Latinos, indigenous people, LGTBQ, people with disabilities and women are grotesquely underrepresented in space. Although this year offers historical representation for cinema on many fronts, there is still a lot of work to do.
It has been too easy to blame Oscar for the problems that Hollywood faces. In the 92 years that the Oscars distributed statuettes, white or Caucasian actors represent 99% of the winners of best actress and 93% of best actor. When #OscarsSoWhite made headlines, many focused on omitting POC in the acting categories, but now we’re looking at the film in general, both in front and behind the camera. When the Academy announced its standards of representation and inclusion, anonymous AMPAS voters shared their feeling of indignation as if they had “lost their freedoms” and could no longer make the films they wanted. Analyzing the Oscar nominees for best film in 2000, no nominee would have been excluded according to the proposed guidelines to take effect in 2024.
At the time of the announcement, Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said Variety, “We don’t want the minimum to be reached. We want them to meet all of these limits. ”A dialogue can begin to take place between the creator and consumers who see a version of themselves on the screen. It is up to the Academy to identify, nurture and continue to fill the pipeline with the next film artist who will evolve with the medium.
It can never be overemphasized that the POC is not asking for a standard slot or “quota” in the categories of performance, direction or craftsman. We are asking for the same opportunity to grab one of those coveted places. As in baseball, we want a chance to hit the target to see if we can hit a home run; we don’t want a “walk” in the industry.
It is worth celebrating this extended calendar year, as we can make history in several categories. We could have the most nominated black producer in history (Denzel Washington with two), the first woman of color nominated in the direction (Regina King and / or Chloe Zhao), along with the largest number of women ever nominated in the category (adding Emerald Fennell) We were able to see the largest number of POC nominations in the acting categories, which has a current record of 7 in the 2006 film year. According to forecasts, we could have up to 12 and track nine or ten.
In each of the under-represented areas, there is work to be done.
The LGBTQ section is not just about characters like movies like “Falling” by Viggo Mortensen or “Supernova” by Harry Macqueen. We want to see it filled with pride behind the scenes, as in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”, directed by George C. Wolfe, who is openly gay. Alice Wu’s “The Half of It” addresses the LGBTQ subject from an Asian cultural perspective, something we don’t see often.
The superhero genre earns billions of dollars every year, and Cathy Yan’s “Birds of Prey” features Renee Montoya, portrayed by Oscar nominee Rosie Perez (“Fearless” 1993), as the first openly gay character in a DCEU film.
We finally saw a romantic lesbian comedy with Hulu’s “Happiest Season” by Clea DuVall from Hulu, receiving excellent news and a wonderful performance from Kristen Stewart, who is openly bisexual. The first known LGBTQ producer nominated for an Oscar was Tony Richardson for “Tom Jones” from 1963, where he won the award for best film. Only three winners of the best film were produced by someone from the LGBTQ community – “American Beauty” from 1999 (Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks), “No Country for Old Men” (Scott Rudin) from 2007 and “The King’s Speech” from 2010 ( Iain Canning) To date, no producer of bisexual, transgender, queer or gender neutral identification has found recognition.
There are subjects classified as taboos, which can also be synonymous with issues related to women, gender and sexuality. Be it in workplace behavior (like Kitty Green’s “The Assistant”), abusive relationships (like Phyllida Lloyd’s “Herself”), gender non-conformity (like Ryder Allen’s character in “Palmer”) or the pain of losing a child (like Vanessa Kirby in “Pieces of a Woman”), we don’t allow enough dialogue to take place.
People with cognitive or physical disabilities are still one of the biggest areas of opportunity in Hollywood. The most prominent film on the front line is Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal”, which not only addresses the issue of hearing loss, but features many actors from the deaf and hearing impaired community.
There are only about four films, of this year’s nearly 600 feature films, which have disability as a central theme. “The best summer ever” by Zeno Mountain Farms, “Come As You Are” by Samuel Goldwyn Films, “Crip Camp” by Netflix and “Run” by Hulu. The non-verbal is covered in Netflix’s “The Midnight Sky” and Universal Pictures’ “News of the World”.
So far, only two disabled actors have been recognized by the Academy – the winner of best supporting actor Harold Russell for “The Best Years of Our Lives” in 1947 and the winner of best actress Marlee Matlin for “Children of a Lesser God”, from 1987. More than 50 actors and actresses were nominated or won Oscars for portraying characters with disabilities.
116 women were nominated for best film since 1973, representing 18% of the total number of men nominated. Of these 116, two are black women (Oprah Winfrey for “Selma” and Kimberly Steward for “Manchester by the Sea”), one Latin (Gabriela Rodriguez for “Roma”) and one Asian (Kwak Sin-ae for “Parasite”)
The issue of diversity, equity and inclusion cannot be important only for the color artist. It has to be important for all of us. The cinema will prosper when everyone is on board.