Anatomy of The Oscars

As the 96th Academy Awards approach, a recurrent question remains: why is so much underrepresentation still going on? Even with the new inclusion rules (more in Rolling Stone), it seems that we have just started to move away from the acute problems to approach the systemic ones. 

Best European Picture 

As a rule, only one qualified film per country is allowed to be appointed by the local committees to pre-run for Best Foreign Film.  This rule helps keep the award democratic, but it does not stop the category from being completely dominated by European films.

Since 1957, the Old Continent has been awarded 57 times while only 10 awards have gone to all other continents. 

This year is no exception: four out of the five nominees are from Europe, and the fifth one (Perfect Days), is a Japanese feature by German director Wim Wenders. Interestingly enough, Anatomy of a Fall was not the selected film by the French committee as an Oscar Best Foreign Film pre-candidate, not even after winning the main award in Cannes. 

Instead, The Taste of Things was sent out but did not make the cut for Best Foreign Film. Nevertheless, Anatomy of a Fall has been nominated for five awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. 

Half a Century Later 

Back in 1953, when Marlon Brandon won his award for The Godfather, he rejected it because of how the US treated tribal people. Brando did not even attend the ceremony, sending instead a woman who identified as of Apache heritage, Sacheen Little Feather. Dressed in a beaded buckskin dress, she stood in front of the audience and refused the award on his behalf. Sacheen was booed on live television (BBC has the story). More than fifty years later, Lily Gladstone is the first Native American actress to be nominated (more about it on Variety). There have been three other tribal women in the category before, but none of them were American. If her favoritism is confirmed, History will finally be made.

Gender Unbalance 

While Barbie got the biggest box office of 2023 ($1.4B), Greta Gerwin was completely snubbed as a director, as Rolling Stone retells. After many Oscar disappointments, Christopher Nolan is the favorite to win Best Director (more on Forbes). His main competition is ten-time nominee, one-time winner Martin Scorcese.

The red flag here is that there is only one woman (Justine Tried, Anatomy of a Fall) nominated among four male directors. Let's not forget that it took 82 years for the Academy to award a female, Katheryn Bigelow, as Best Director, back in 2009. So far, only three women won the category in the 96 editions of the Academy Awards. 

Inconsistency seems to be the keyword the entertainment industry has been struggling with to adapt to the current times, in which representation is not only needed but demanded. 

Let's hope for a fun and fair ceremony!

Laura