#OscarsSoWhite dominated last year’s Academy Awards, pointing out what anyone paying attention already knew: movies have a lot of white people, and the Oscars rewards those white people. The uproar sparked a genuine conversation about representation on screen, and in June, the Academy sent out 683 new member invitations, 46 percent of which were given to females and 41 percent of which to people of color.
The expansion seems to have worked: the picks this year are much more diverse. Seven non-white actors/actresses earned nominations, “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins is a strong candidate for Best Director and four of the nine Best Picture Nominees feature non-white leads. Best Documentary is led by three black narratives, and Best Animated Feature is a race between a story about a non-white female (“Moana”) and an allegory about racism (“Zootopia”). One year removed from a race between some white journalists (“Spotlight”), white Wall Street bankers (“The Big Short”) and a white astronaut (“The Martian”), a movie about three black female scientists is a serious contender for Best Picture.
If nothing else, this year’s diversity shows how easy it is to placate the Internet; reading these headlines would lead one to believe Hollywood just solved racism. Some of this optimism will dissipate when “La La Land” (deservedly) wins for Best Picture and Director (it almost certainly will; the academy is too self-indulgent not to pick the film about the magic of film). The progress, though, is promising. The academy still heaped praise on a blatant anti-semite (Mel Gibson, with six nominations for “Hacksaw Ridge”), but it’s clear they’re trying.
While the racial diversity of this year’s field caters to the young viewers the Oscars ceremony so badly needs, it may not be the show’s most pressing fix. There is a growing chasm between what viewers seek out and what the Academy nominates. 22 of the 25 highest grossing movies this year were either sequels, reboots, animated or superhero flicks; the highest grossing Best Picture nominee ranked 28th (“Arrival”). No doubt nominations themselves generate viewership for these underseen films, but if the awards show can’t start showcasing popular movies to begin with, it’s going to have a hard time maintaining its cultural relevance.
This isn’t really the Oscars’ fault: many big budget movies people flocked to see were garbage. Until viewers seek out original stories and stop buying tickets to Zack Snyder movies, this trend will continue. The Oscars could and should try taking more risks to appease blockbuster fans; “Deadpool” and “Rogue One” were worthy of nominations, for example. But the burden falls not only on the viewers and the academy, but the film industry as well. Quality, original storytelling can make money, as the success of “Hidden Figures” shows. As much money as sequels rake in, a business model based on character familiarity isn’t sustainable when troves of cinematic on-demand television have overtaken movies as the cultural touchpoint for millennials.
In a way, the Oscars’ significance has been diminished by the democratization of the Internet. In the past, we relied on an exalted Academy to tell us what was quality cinema. Now, with personalized Netflix star ratings, we can judge quality ourselves. This might not be a bad thing; we have more options, more autonomy, and a greater ability to find the entertainment we want than ever before, and the deteriorating relevance of events like the Oscars might just be an inevitable sacrifice.
Personally, I hope this isn’t the case. Television can be great, but the Oscars are a celebration of the grandeur of cinema that the episodic pleasure of the small screen can’t always replicate. Movies, as opposed to television, have a more social viewing experience, and the Oscars are a manifestation of that collective joy, which is why I think they are still important. As our entertainment becomes increasingly atomized, awards shows like the Oscars, however much they revere celebrity and excess, are one of the last places where everyone is watching, and where no one can say for certain what will happen.
#OscarsSoWhite mattered because the Oscars matter because we all watch the Oscars. That circular significance is weakening, though, as the film industry recycles crap and we buy that crap, making the Academy’s nominations increasingly obscure. So please, watch the Oscars. Then, seek out original storytelling on the big screen so future nominations can reflect not just our diverse demographics, but a diverse range of films viewers are invested in.
