Oscars

[zanahoria]

In a historic move, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday laid out sweeping eligibility reforms to the best picture category intended to encourage diversity and equitable representation on screen and off, addressing gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity and disability

amp.theguardian.com/film/2020/sep/08/oscars-academy-awards-diversity-race-gender

The whole of Hollywood will declare themselves LGBTQ now!

Thanks, Freespeecher, will do.

Johnny Depp will probably argue he qualifies because he had a relationship with a woman who now is in a relationship with a woman.

Loads of men will be researching their hispanic ancestry.

I'm perfectly aware that at the time of Dunkirk America wasn't involved but clearly later there were black GIs stationed in the UK and fighting in Europe.

There were many black/brown soldiers from all over the world (Caribbean, Africa, India) fighting in WW2, including my dad and four of his brothers, one of whom was killed in Singapore. Their stories are never told, though; (I can't think of a single one) unless shoehorned in as in "1917". It would be nice to see such stories told at last, but not because of some diversity bullshit.

Ooops , I see that Judashascomeintosomemoney said it too, and better.

I think this is all bonkers, but films only have to meet the criteria in 2 of 4 categories to be eligible. So Little Women or Dunkirk would still be eligible for example, so long as it met the criteria for behind the scenes representation.

Their stories are never told, though
Yes Malahaha, that’s what I’m hoping it means. That they will be told now, maybe ‘Hollywood’ will see the value in those stories now and not as the box ticking diversity quota. Who knows, instead of the likes of Dunkirk continuing to be ‘whitewashed’, and subsequently people believing there were no BAME people there because they’ve never seen them portrayed as being there, there might be some actual representation of actually happened. Because then this might happen (apologies for the looong quote from Sunny Singh)
Could we still see our neighbours as less than human if we also saw them fight shoulder-to-shoulder with “our boys” in the “good” war? Would we call those fleeing war “cockroaches” and demand gunboats to stop them from reaching our white cliffs if we knew they had died for the freedoms we hold so dear? More importantly, would anti-immigration sentiment be so easy to weaponise, even by the left – in the past and the present – if the decent, hardworking Britons knew and recognised how much of their lives, safety and prosperity are results of non-British sacrifices?
And one final thing, a reading recommendation re WW1
blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Black-Poppies-by-Stephen-Bourne-author/9780750990820

What does it mean to say a character is from an under represented group? Is the test just the colour of the actor’s skin, or is there a more fundamental issue about the character the actor plays?

For instance someone earlier mentioned Little Women. Say a BAME woman was cast as Jo, but white women were cast as the rest of the sisters, without any explanation or mention of the difference, or any effect on the storyline. Would that count? Is that a BAME character?

I suppose what I’m trying to get at is - will the colour of the actor’s skin be what matters, or does the role need to reflect the actual experiences of that under represented group in the particular context in which the film is set?

mobile.twitter.com/titaniamcgrath/status/1271494539690287104?lang=en

Titania McGrath ahead of the curve here

Is this another thing to try and remain relevant? I think viewing figures have been dropping for a number of years now.

Brief research shows that a film passes if TWO of the following apply

On-screen acting and storylines, "including at least one of the lead actors or significant supporting actors is from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group"

Creative leadership positions, departmental heads and crew composition

Paid apprenticeships, internships and training

Audience development, from publicity and marketing to distribution

So Dunkirk or any other great film can easily pass - quite rightly - by investing in internships (the main barrier for minorities getting into the industry) and having the right mix of staff.

This is as it should be. Behind the camera matters just as much anD indeed will foster the right stories and casting mix to come forward as these people become more part of the establishment.

What’s not to like??

(I have worked in this industry and it’s incredibly misogynistic and white - and very very very difficult to get into unless a) you’re related to someone (there are literally dynasties of assistant directors, sparks and lighting techs) or b) feel entitled enough to pester for work experience or c) afford to do that work experience for free until someone likes you and says - oh let’s have “_” in the art department.

Also:
Great Expectations...!

They will just hire a whole bunch white Hispanic actors that everyone except the United States don’t view as being different.

I meant ‘David Copperfield’ - it’s been a loooong day...!

*In a historic move, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday laid out sweeping eligibility reforms to the best picture category intended to encourage diversity and equitable representation on screen and off, addressing gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity and disability.

I don't see any mention of women.*

From the article:
According to the academy, underrepresented groups include women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people or people with disabilities.

You have to wonder what adaptations of historic novels will look like. For example Will Jane Austen adaptations be considered ok due to the majority of characters being female?

No, because to cover onscreen representation it has to include under-represented ethnic groups.

Cameron Diaz is Latina, so that would cover it. Or someone similar.

There were many black/brown soldiers from all over the world (Caribbean, Africa, India) fighting in WW2

The Free French army had far more black troops than white ones but when Paris was liberated, De Gaulle insisted that only white soldiers should march through the streets.

@zanahoria

There were many black/brown soldiers from all over the world (Caribbean, Africa, India) fighting in WW2

The Free French army had far more black troops than white ones but when Paris was liberated, De Gaulle insisted that only white soldiers should march through the streets.

Stretching the definition of black, because upon looking it up it appears they were mostly Arab troops, but I didn't realise this was true. I knew that they'd ordered an all-white force, but not that the French army was so non-white at the time (although it makes sense thinking about it, given that the French forces mostly had to scarper and recruit to North Africa). Thanks for the history lesson.

Hmmm. Films like In The Name Of The Father (which was nominated for Best Picture) and A Love Divided wouldn't qualify for the first standard, even though they are largely about sectarian divisions and prejudice.

I have no words for those who attempt to control artistic expression.

The place to support (or not) any particular film is the ticket box and the review column. Attempting to control a film before making, through threatening access to awards, is not OK.

Top down fuckery that's easier than real change in an industry.

I think cinemas are dying any way. Once the main aim of a film is no longer to enthrall and entertain the end will just come sooner. I bet people in Japan aren't telling the Japanese film industry to be more diverse and include some white people. Making a film by ticking boxes is mad. The Oscars are boring anyway.

The place to support (or not) any particular film is the ticket box and the review column. Attempting to control a film before making, through threatening access to awards, is not OK

Hollywood execs (rather than the artistic talent) already control things like the ethnic makeup of the cast, the sex of the characters and the subject matter they are prepared to put out there. Writers who go out side currently accepted norms are told to change the characters they write to fit the execs idea of what will sell at the box office. Since Oscar nominations have an impact on the box this will likely have some impact without doing anything that isn’t already routine in movie making.

@zanahoria

There were many black/brown soldiers from all over the world (Caribbean, Africa, India) fighting in WW2

The Free French army had far more black troops than white ones but when Paris was liberated, De Gaulle insisted that only white soldiers should march through the streets.

More on black African soldiers, but in WW1: www.dw.com/en/world-war-i-the-black-army-that-marched-in-from-africa/a-46239274

There were also lots of black Africans fighting for the Free French in the last winter of war, '44-'45. It was a particularly bitter winter; the snow was over a meter high everywhere and it was freezing, terrible even for those used to the cold. The Africans had never even seen snow before! Here's a bit about that:
rarehistoricalphotos.com/black-soldiers-fighting-france-1944/

I think it looks complicated, but is a good first step in what will need to be a long fight to increase diversity. Reading the details, women are covered as well as lgbt, POC and people with disabilities. The 4 categories hit the behind the scenes talent (which tends to have even poorer representation than on screen) too and the inclusion of internships seems like a bit of genius as an easy way for a studio that doesn’t really want to change to meet a category, especially in films that are already planned, yet absolutely crucial to getting more minority talent ready to take the opportunities further up the ladder.

It might be gamed. And the Academy will need to stay on top of that if they want the effort to actually increase diversity in the films that get nominated/win and in Hollywood in general. But they need to do something because they are losing relevance and they know it.

Does anybody actually give a shit about the oscars any more? It's just a great big wank fest for all the film industry luvvies, fawning over each other and applauding their virtue-signalling acceptance speeches.

I'll be interested to see how this pans out. Take the best picture nominations at the 91st Oscars as an example - we have (among others):

Green Book (white director, white bigot drives black musician round the deep south, clash of racism and classism, criticised in some quarters as being a typical "Hollywood tackles racism in a don't startle the [white] horses sort of way" offering).

Black Panther - black director, mostly black cast, first superhero movie to be put forward for best picture, and one of the very few watchable Marvel movies for the non-fan.

Roma - Mexican director, set in Mexico city with a Mexican cast. I think this was the first foreign language film to be up for best picture.

Black Kkklansman - black director, black lead, bitterly funny, fascinating, brilliantly put together take on a true story.

Jo Jo Rabbit - Maori (and Jewish and various other ethnicities) director, again brilliantly but darkly funny take on Nazi Germany through the eyes of a small boy.

The Favourite - male director, but very much a female led and female driven ensemble piece.

Pretty much all of these films would tick the boxes being suggested - but crucially, they weren't written as tick box exercises, they were written and filmed as brilliant (each in their own way) pieces of cinema.

And if I had to sum up the problem with the Oscars in a nutshell, it's that of course that year the white director won. It's not that there isn't brilliant cinema by black/gay/female/etc. directors, featuring brilliant women/black/gay/etc. actors telling stories that are fascinating and complex... It's that they only ever seem to get nominated as a nod to diversity, they don't actually win. (For the most part - there are occasional exceptions of course).

In fact, further to my previous post, anyone interested in opening a book?

My guess is we will see two types of film as a result of this. Films which tick the boxes coincidentally by being brilliant pieces of film making by black and other minority directors, featuring black and minority cast members and writers. And films deliberately designed to tick the boxes which will be paint-by-numbers exercises in wokeness by white directors (and a certain type of wokeness - the "don't frighten the white male horses" type of performative wokeness).

And at the end of the process it will still be the white male directors who actually win.