Let’s start with something easy; Parasite was the best movie I’ve seen released in 2019. At the 92nd Annual Academy Awards last year, it was a well-deserving winner of the Oscar for Best International Feature Film. Heck, it was so good, let’s decide to give it Best Picture as well. After all, it was the ‘best picture’. But here’s where things get tricky – if Parasite is winning both the International category and the overall Best category, perhaps the Academy needs a National category as well; you know, to celebrate American films, on balance, independently of international endeavours. That way, films like The Irishman and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood have an equal chance, in their own category, to compete amongst themselves. After all, the Academy Awards is an American Institution; you would think that celebrating American films, their own creations, would be on equal footing, if not more prominent, than international films. Why then, can Parasite win two awards, as a film, and The Irishman and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood can only win one?
I felt bad for Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino on Oscar Night, losing out to Best Picture in their own backyard. I would have been equally perturbed if an Animated Feature had won Best Picture, since animated features are another subsection of all films, that have their own category to compete in, and have done since 2001. I’d like to see the end of Animated movies and International movies, (you know, movies that have their own category), getting nominated across multiple categories, where other genres cannot. Or, don’t have separate categories, if you’re going to blur the lines; choose to honour the separate categories you’ve set up, or demolish them and just have Best Picture. It’s your choice, but choose, I say. And note; notice I’m not complaining about the person at the helm of the movie in any genre winning Best Director, (Bong Joon-ho for Parasite, in this case), because there is only one category setup for that.
On the same foot, maybe Parasite breaking through the threshold of winning Best Picture was exactly the push foreign language films needed to be legitimised to a layman western audience. If so, it’s worked and it’s fantastic; I admit, I probably saw foreign language films as an ‘other’, subconsciously culturally irrelevant and considered them to be probably inferior to Hollywood films, as is my western upbringing. But that’s not the case now. Although now, I still don’t actively dabble in foreign language films often, they’re more a genre I avoid, like horror, because I already watch too many movies. But certainly, the days of recognising Best Picture as the single biggest award on Oscar night are over for me – and there’s no reason that Best Picture, Best International Film and Best Animated Feature Film shouldn’t be recognised with equal prestige for their top achievement, and will be, in my mind, equal, as the best achievement in their categories going forward and backwards.
This opinion piece is probably coming way too late after the conversation has moved on, and it’s just me bitching – Yep! That is what it is. But Parasite winning both categories really charred my biscuit last year. You want to know what I think should happen – I think they should reinstate ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ over Best International Film. But, if they want to keep it the way it is, fine; that just means other non-American English language films like British, Canadian and Australian films, are international, and must fit in the Best International Film category as well, and bad luck when it comes to the wide reach of something western-centric like 1917 or Jojo Rabbit, compared to something like the latest from South Korea, and I worry that movies for non-English speaking audiences will get shunned again. Then, movies should filter into either Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Film or Best Animated Feature Film, and that’s it.
In less than a month, I’ll be rolling out an upgraded version of my personal awards to coincide with the Oscars, and although I’ll still refer to the Oscars and award ceremonies in my reviews, because they’re a good measuring stick and I’ll want to avoid being more political than I need to be too, they’re all I need. But I’m taking this space now to explain how increasingly disheartened I am when I learn how political the Oscars allow themselves to be, and open my eyes to how it’s probably always been. Now they’ve introduced diversity quotas for 2024, and I just don’t understand. Every year there’s discussion and debate as to who should or should not have been nominated (which is naturally subjective, due to the artform), and that discussion should stay at the individual level. It’s not up to award ceremonies to cater for diversity, ceremonies that celebrate the highest excellence in their field; but for film companies and studios, to provide opportunities in diversity to propel talent into those top echelons. And they do a great job.
Last year there was disappointment that a female director wasn’t recognised in the category for Best Director… but who specifically are we talking about? And who are we taking out? Let’s have that conversation. If the answer to the questions is ‘take out any of the men, so we can have a woman represented’, then you’re misfocused in a discussion about ‘directors’. I’ll give you one – I thought Olivia Wilde was stiff not getting nominated for her job on Booksmart. Having seen all five movies where directors were nominated though, I’d personally struggle to take any of them out. Done! You may differ. To make a case for sexism or racism holding back diversity on any awards night, there would be a list of specific names, case-by-case, that we could almost categorically agree have been snubbed year to year, and I don’t see that. Similarly, there was the most disappointment that Adam Sandler wasn’t recognised for his work in Uncut Gems, in the category of Best Actor last year, but because Sandler isn’t a minority, his missed opportunity is just bad luck, and can’t be a snub based on a lack of diversity – how can it only be racism that limits diversity when there are other equally defensible performances that don’t make the cut, covering other ethnic groups, as well?
Perhaps I’m ignorant to how influential awards shows are at stimulating the industry, but as I’ve heard Morgan Freeman say in the past, “[you want to end racism]; stop talking about it”, and treat people as individuals. Well, with all due respect Mr. Freeman, we may need to still talk about it for a little longer, because there’s not a day that goes by where we can’t do better at being a little better; we’re not there yet, but I certainly agree with the sentiment. I don’t want to be thinking about the colour of their skin, the gentiles in their pants, or the people they like to rub up against when anyone is accepting their award; I want to be congratulating them on their performance and their talent. Regional and community specific awards do exist, like the AACTA’s and the Black Reel Awards and it’s fantastic that they do – there’s nothing wrong with taking pride and defending your culture, no matter who you are. Yet, I still want an award ceremony that celebrates how everyone can come together on an individual level. I’m probably only talking to the loudest trolls when I say, let’s have that; let’s make that happen.
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