You can’t imagine the electric current that went thru me as I read this article in the New York Times yesterday because the person ringing all the bells about the 2004 Oscar Noms, was, you guessed it, yours truly. As I called around doing interviews for my Women’s eNews article, everyone was focused on Sofia Coppola. Almost no one (not even the folks at Women in Film in LA!) had fully appreciated the bigger picture. My article ended up winning the “Best News Article Written for the Internet” award from NPFW the following year, effectively setting me on my way.
But as you read my article in current context, note this: I asserted then (& I still assert now) that success in 2004 didn’t just depend on a good crop of films. It was also a result of the fact that many women (including me) howled in protest when Julie Taymor was NOT nominated for Best Director for FRIDA (even tho FRIDA received 6 nominations & eventually won 2 Oscars).
If history is repeating itself, then perhaps the howling we did last year about Loveleen Tandan (“My SLUMDOG Brouhaha“) has helped to sensitize everyone again this year? Before you blow me off &/or accuse me of grandiosity (or worse) consider this: THE HURT LOCKER screened in Toronto last year… but it was barely noticed… When Independent Spirit Award noms were announced on 12/2/08, only Mackie & Renner got noms (quickly forgotten as the ’09 race heated up). But as Cieply points out, THE HURT LOCKER now has Oscar buzz for 2010. What changed? Well, lots of things changed (including the election of Barack Obama & new conditions in Iraq), but two things that did NOT change: the film & its director.
Think about it folks… Let’s keep the pressure up!!!
“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
