Oscar 2020 Nominations Accused Of Scarce Diversity
The announcement of the 92nd Oscar nominations has initiated the same polemics: too white, too male. Lack of diversity is the issue that keeps raising the waves in any type of artistic nominations, Oscars being constantly under attack. But here is the question: why nowadays art is being judged by gender, race, sexual preferences, etc. kicking its quality into the darkest corner?
Stephen King has twitted "I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong". He was immediately called "a white rich guy" and washed down the drain. However, the famous American writer has expressed it right: are we looking for the best in the field or are we looking for the lists simply to include all kind of diversity undermining the quality?
We don't talk about the cases when a worthy film, director or actor/actress doesn't enter the list because of some bias or the difference in Academy opinion, as, for instance, Oscars 2020 doesn't include such films as Us, The Dead Don't Die or Uncut Germs or Adam Sandler for the Best Actor and Lupita Nyong’o for the Best Actress. We are talking about the notion in general that the first thing they do is count how many black people or women are in nomination categories and start shaming the Oscars. But shouldn't they be just for the best of the best despite the colour or gender? And the subject of discussions should revolve around the best choice in terms of quality and not otherwise?
Therefore, we are reviewing only the current nominees as they stand. The champion of nominations this year is Joker by having received 11. But this not necessarily means that it might snatch the majority of awards. The Irishman, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and 1917 received 10 nominations each. So the battle is close and we'll just have to wait till February 9 and see who's going to be the real winner.
The most popular Best Picture category named the following nominees:
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
“The Irishman”
“Parasite”
“1917”
“Marriage Story”
“Jojo Rabbit”
“Joker”
“Little Women”
“Ford v Ferrari”
Meanwhile the following five directors were selected in Best Director category:
Martin Scorsese, “The Irishman”
Quentin Tarantino, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Bong Joon-ho, “Parasite”
Sam Mendes, “1917”
Todd Phillips, “Joker”
This year Scarlett Johansson was the actress who ended up with a rare double acting nomination for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for her work in Marriage Story and JoJo Rabbit respectively. Meanwhile Cynthia Erivo also received two nominations: one for Best Actress and the second for Original Song "Stand Up" both for the film Harriet.
See the complete list of nominees here.
There's still almost a month to watch the nominee movies for yourselves and determine your favourites. And may the art win, not politics.
