But this year, with a culture-wide reckoning over decades of sexual misconduct, a film business in decline, a volatile political climate and the fact that last year the esteemed show couldn’t even manage to present its biggest award correctly, the film academy and host Jimmy Kimmel on Sunday staged a complex and sometimes incongruous dance of attempting to both honor and atone for the past.
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This article made me look back at my own Oscar's viewing experience with a much bigger perspective, and made me reflect a little bit more on the last year in entertainment and pop culture in general. The most important point that this article makes is that the 90th Annual Academy Awards this year marked the baby step that we have seen being taken across many industries: recognition of minorities and moral human issues without any big "wins" or changes for those groups and issues. While the nominees for the Oscars this year were more diverse and artistic than we may have seen in the past few years, "groundbreaking" is not necessarily the word that I would use for the winners of the awards or speeches given. What I think I was expecting out of this year's awards ceremony was a little more spirit and passion out of a group (Hollywood) that everyone in our country, and even across the world is now watching. The 90th Oscars provided some new recognition that we haven't seen in other awards shows, but there was no big punch that changed views or issues drastically.
In the midst of all the sexual abuse allegations in Hollywood, the #OscarsSoWhite movement, and the presenting of Best Picture to the incorrect film last year it did feel like the Oscars had a lot to make up for this time around. I watched nearly the entire show through and felt like it definitely succeeded in some moments and faltered in others. Things like Greta Gerwig being the fifth woman to be nominated for best director and Yance Ford, the first transgender nominee were incredibly exciting and hopeful. However I think the article articulated the progress we still have to make in the entertainment industry really well-- many awards for things such as best actress and supporting actor went to seasoned winners and had very predictable outcomes. While women like Greta Gerwig should not win Oscars simply for being a woman and being a director at the same time, it is important to acknowledge how much more difficult it is for minorities to make strides in this industry.
Correcting the past is a very blatant and bold statement. I appreciated the sentiments by the Oscars, I appreciated the highly decorative scenic elements, I appreciated the change in tradition when it came to presenters, but its hard to say that they corrected the past when the past was literally a year ago when they awarded an academy award for best actor in a motion picture to a man accused of rape. One of the most trying and powerful moments had to be when three women who have openly accused Harvey Weinstein of misconduct introduced the video that didn't exactly address the problem head on but threw inclusion into the mix to make the video a tad bit less targeted and more universal. Although I don't believe that these Academy awards have changed the past in any way, it was refreshing to see Jimmy Kimmel's remarks on the issue, and it was great to see that the issue was not made into a joke or devalued in any way.
The Oscars have begun on a road to attempt to reconcile for the past few years of mistakes and discriminatory patterns. The Oscars might be trying to rectify for this, but it will take more than one baby step towards inclusivity for anyone to believe that they are an institution that fairly recognizes any deserving artists, no matter their background. The Oscars are following in line with society’s movements and patterns. The awards and the speeches reflected big movements towards acknowledging the problems in our society. That being said, they were not the first voices to say these words. What is rare about the award show platform is that these words are being heard by a massive scale all at once. The Oscars did finally begin to acknowledge how challenging it is for a minority to receive a nomination. It shouldn’t be forgotten that nominees, presenters, and guests are people who have openly bee accused of sexual assault, and that sends a message of tolerability to behavior such as this.
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