THIS JUST IN: Thanks to Melissa Silverstein, “Blue Oscar 2012” is now live on IndieWIRE’s Women & Hollywood blog 🙂
Well, it’s happened once again…
Starting with a list of more than 600 films released in the USA in 2011 (including many excellent films written &/or directed by women), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS aka “The Academy”) has just nominated 9 films in the Best Picture Category that were all written AND directed by men. Most of them are also about men with predominantly male casts. In most cases, the women on screen (if any) are relegated to supporting roles (most of which are minor roles, peripheral to the film’s main action).
Once again, in the Best Director category, we have no female candidates. Once again, in the Best Adapted Screenplay category, we have a woman nominated as co-writer of a screenplay (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) in which there are no lead actresses.
And in the Best Original Screenplay category, we have a film (Bridesmaids) that has plot holes you can drive a truck through, but the male critics loved it. Why? Well, this isn’t the time to rant on about this, but it doesn’t take much digging to learn that many of the scenes that the male film critics liked best were, in fact, added by the film’s male producer & the film’s male director. So exactly who are we rewarding in this case…?
So why is Oscar “blue” once again? Click here for my latest graphic Blue Oscar 2012.
Now I know it’s very hard to see what’s missing, but believe me, the truth is out there!!!
To me the most egregious omission is We Need to Talk about Kevin, which I think is the Best Film of 2011. So I was astonished (& heart broken) when Tilda Swinton wasn’t even nominated in the Best Actress category. But am I really surprised? Sadly no. When The New Yorker relegates responsibility for their Kevin review to their second stringer & he writes this: “The real story is the unexplained absence of family therapy.” then I’m already prepared for the worst.
I’ve discussed Kevin with some of my CFCA colleagues, & sure enough, even the best of them fail to see that Kevin is an epistemological drama (not a psychological drama). But Kevin doesn’t official open here until Friday, so you’ll have to wait a few more days for my full review.
Meanwhile, let the handicapping begin 🙁
Click here to download my Oscar Impacts chart (updated to include all stats for 2012) as a pdf –> 2012OscarChart
