Christmas in Hollywood has come and gone. Yes, I’m talking about the Academy Awards. Advent = awards season. In Los Angles, we worship at the altar of a golden idol named Oscar.
I really loved what Kevin Spacey said on the red carpet this year – that when you work in Hollywood you’re too busy to see anybody that’s not involved your current project. As artists, we form these intimate relationships while making art together, sharing truths that people don’t normally share with other people, and then we go our separate ways. Awards galas, then, are reunions for friends and colleagues who have shared profound experiences. I can appreciate that. But this year the Oscars seemed to be a little more than that.
Full disclosure: I did not watch the show last year. I already knew I don’t like Seth MacFarlane and I knew I wouldn’t like the show as hosted by him. I tuned in for about 30 seconds and, in that short amount of time, heard enough misogynistic, racist, homophobic fart jokes as I ever needed to hear. I love movies, but I wasn’t interested.
Ellen, on the other hand, was great. She was incredibly real without being cynical. She made points about race: “Possibility number one: 12 Years a Slave wins best picture. And possibility two: you’re all racists;” about class: The pizza guy got a $1000 tip; and, in her costume, as I hoped she would, she made a point about gender: A woman at a prime-time, nationally-broadcast Hollywood event wearing a suit is a great sign of how fluid our culture’s notions of gender have become. That at the same event, Robin Morgan, also a lesbian, wore a sparkling gown shows that we are moving towards a world in which old stereotypes of what gendered behavior is appropriate for which sexes and sexualities have less and less weight.
This year, though female nominees were still a minority, women won awards across the board. Jennifer Lee, the first female director of a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film, won for Best Animated Feature. A woman – Catherine Martin – won for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. Several people of color won: Best Director was awarded to Alfonso Cuarón; Best Supporting Actress went to Lupita Nyong’o; and Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez won for Best Original Song. In fact Robert Lopez is an EGOT.
I was thrilled for 12 Years a Slave and Lupita Nyong’o, and, as a fellow MFA, excited about her shoutout to Yale School of Drama. Training really does make a difference. Cate Blanchett hat-tipped theater when she mentioned the Sydney Theatre Company, of which she was co-artistic director from 2008-20013. She also testified to the undeniable value of women’s stories when she reminded non-believers that “female films with women at the center” are not niche experiences: “Audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.”
For these reasons and more, there was much to celebrate at this year’s Oscars. At the same time, I cannot escape the feeling that we might be getting hoodwinked a little. Maybe I’m cynical, but I’ve grown to mistrust declarations of diversity from patriarchal institutions. I mean, am I the only one for whom “Team Oscar” seemed a little too “United Colors of Benetton?” How can we be sure that the diversity and gender parity of that group of “award winners” was not a marketing ploy designed to allay concerns that the Academy is too white, male, and old? What long-term actions are actually being taken to diversify the votership, change who has access to resources, and expand perceptions of whose stories are worth being told?
I was disappointed that the memoriam montage did not include a picture of Sarah Jones, the 2nd AC killed while shooting Midnight Rider, though she was mentioned in a caption at the end of Bette Midler’s performance. There are many, many women working at all levels in Hollywood. When one of us looses our life on set, we should all mourn and we should all take note. Jones’ life was no less valuable than any star who died last year.
I would have loved to have seen Judi Dench honored for her performance in Philomena – a movie about a woman that reveled in her complexity, her life experience, and even the very wrinkles that make her face more expressive than any 20-something year-old ingénue’s could ever be.
Leto’s performance may have been great, but the producers of Dallas Buyers’ Club should have cast a trans actor to play Rayon. There are more than a few actors who could have played the role, and yet a cis-gendered man was lauded for impersonating a woman’s experience, proving, yet again, that the two surest ways to win an Oscar are 1) by playing a character who is dying, and 2a) if you’re a man, losing lots of weight, and 2b) if you’re a woman, “bravely” gaining weight or wearing prosthetics that make you “ugly.” (Name them in the comments: Stars who have won for characters who are dying or deformed. Go.)
In countless other ways, women’s bodies were elided, violated, and oversexualized in Oscar-nominated films. Let’s hope that this year’s award season really is a sign of better things to come. Only seven black women have won Academy Awards in 75 years. Six of those women have won in the last 14 years, indicating an acceleration of progress if not a diversification of type: The winners have been recognized for playing slaves (twice), magical negroes, poor and abusive single mothers, and a Motown singer.
It’s a beautiful thing we do, artistically, and often, sociologically. We tell stories that make meaning out of human experience. Producers are increasingly confronted with the idea that stories about women, men of color, and transpeople are stories worth telling. Now we just have to figure out how to put the resources necessary to telling these stories into the hands of the people they are about.
After Hollywood Christmas comes Hollywood New Year. I resolve to advocate for inclusion; to analyze the intersections of sex, gender, race, class that make up character and inform narrative; and to celebrate the men of color, women, and transpeople that are telling their stories. What are your Hollywood New Year’s resolutions?