The answer: A resounding no.
From its very earliest moments to the shocking, exultant Best Picture victory by "Parasite" -- the first foreign language film to win Best Picture and the first Korean film nominated for Best Picture, let alone win — these Oscars felt like the long-awaited arrival of an inflection point for an institution desperately in need of one.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has not lacked self-awareness. Since 2015's viral hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, the Academy has been under near-constant assault for its failure to address its historic sidelining or erasure of people of color, of women, of LGBTQ+ individuals, and most recently, of global talent.
This year's show seemed at last to take these critiques to heart. Janelle Monáe opened the show with Billy Porter and performed the anodyne theme song to "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" on a nostalgic version of the show's set. She was then joined on stage by an army of dancers dressed as characters from films — many of which starred people of color.
She ended her performance by paying homage to "all the women who directed phenomenal films" — none of whom were nominated — and announcing that she was "so proud to stand here as a black queer artist telling stories. Happy Black History Month!"
Chris Rock and Steve Martin, two former Oscars hosts who jokingly mourned their "demotion" to mere introducers, also called attention to the criticism.
"So many great directors nominated this year!" said Rock.
"I don't know, Chris. I thought there was something missing," responded Martin.
"Vaginas?"
"Yes, yes."
Rock then called out Best Actress nominee Cynthia Erivo: "Cynthia did such a great job in 'Harriet' hiding black people that the Academy got her to hide all the black nominees."
"In 1929, there were no black acting nominees," replied Martin.
"And now, in 2020, we got one," joked Rock.
"Amazing growth," snarked Martin.
But the overdue acknowledgment of the diversity issue would've meant nothing if the show's major winners had simply been the expected ones — big, expensive studio movies showcasing the trials and tribulations of straight white men -- like "Joker," "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood," "1917" and "The Irishman."
Signs that this year would be different came early, when Matthew A. Cherry's brilliant short film "Hair Love" — which began as a Kickstarter project and turned into a powerful picture -- won for Best Animated Short.
As Karen Rupert Toliver, the film's co-producer, said in her acceptance speech, "It was a labor of love...because we have a firm belief that representation matters deeply, especially in cartoons because in cartoons that's when we first see our movies."
The recognition that cartoons are a vital lens through which we encounter the world and ourselves continued with the performance of "Frozen 2"'s Best Song nominee "Into the Unknown," which featured not just the English-language original Elsa, Idina Menzel, but 10 of her Elsa counterparts from around the world, singing verses of the song in languages from Japanese to Polish.
But ultimately, it was the truly historic recognition of director Bong Joon-ho and his film "Parasite" that did the most to make these Oscars feel so fundamentally different. Many wrote off the film's success because of Americans' reluctance to watch a movie with subtitles, so it was widely assumed that it would, at most, receive an Original Screenplay win and victory in the newly renamed Best International Feature category. Bong himself perhaps assumed as much, saying in his acceptance speech for the latter that he was "ready to drink tonight until next morning."
But when he won Best Director — and then assembled his fellow producers, cast and crew onstage to accept Best Picture — he seemed shaken, as if suddenly aware of the ways in which this victory would change the world of film. Dazed and having already given three acceptance speeches, he bowed out in favor of producer Kwak Sin-ae, who spoke for the entire room when she called the moment a "very opportune moment in history."
The movie industry has been global since the invention of the motion picture; today, more money is made by Hollywood abroad than it is in the US, and for a growing number of movies, box office is being driven by nonwhite audiences.
This is, indeed, a very opportune moment in history — for the Oscars, for America and for the world. It's a moment when power is shifting and disaggregating as we head toward a future where opportunity lies not in the shrinking middle, but in the emerging edges.
While there remains much work to be done, the Academy might just have finally embraced the lesson that activists -- like April Reign, creator of #OscarsSoWhite, and Ava DuVernay, a filmmaker who has been outspoken about the lack of diversity in Hollywood -- have been patiently trying to teach. It's a lesson declaimed in freestyle verse onstage by rapper and "Pitch Perfect" actor Utkarsh Ambudkar, in his delightfully weird mid-Oscars rap recap:
"You've been a long time trying to be colorblind
What you see right in front of you is a sign of the times...
There's plenty of light for us all to shine"
Here's to Bong Joon-ho and the cast and crew of "Parasite." And here's to the Motion Picture Academy, for finally feeling the change in the weather. The rain has come, and brought with it chaos and uncertainty — but also change, clarity, truth and a glimpse of the inevitable future.
"Opinion" - Google News
February 10, 2020 at 08:47PM
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The Oscars finally got it right - CNN
"Opinion" - Google News
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