Oscars stepping towards progress.. A sign that not just Cinema, but the world is opening up in acceptance of the overlooked..!
Two years since the Academy took steps to rectify its predominantly white, male demographic by inviting 774 new members, of which 39 per cent were women, and 30 per cent people of colour to join its ranks, it looked like we’re starting to see progress.
A prominently astonishing and progressive winner of the night was ‘Period. End of Sentence.’, which tackles the taboo of menstruation in India, won Best Documentary Short. “I can’t believe a film about menstruation just won an Oscar”, said the film’s director, Rayka Zehtabchi, ending her speech with the declaration that “A period should end a sentence, not a girl’s education”.
Oscars 2019 saw a lot of attention to Women centrism which was overlooked for years. ‘Roma’ which tells the story of a domestic worker’s relationship with the family who employs her might have failed to win Best Picture, but at least it won in the Foreign Language while Alfonso Cuarón won Best Director. In his speech, he thanked the Academy for “recognising a film centred around an indigenous woman, a character who has historically been relegated to the background in cinema.”
Another progressive lookout at the ceremony was ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, which may not have made any history as such but it was hard not to be moved watching Rami Malek, winner of Best Actor award proclaim, “We made a film about a gay man, an immigrant, who lived his life just unapologetically himself. The fact I’m here tonight is proof we’re longing for stories like this. I am a son of immigrants from Egypt, and my story is being written right now”.
Highlight of the event, history was made indeed last night when Black Panther’s costume designer Ruth Carter, and its production designer Hannah Beachler, both became the first ever African American winners in their categories. “Wow, this has been a long time coming”, said Carter, who celebrated “the empowered way women can look and lead on screen”.
The New York Times’s Kyle Buchanan pointed out in a tweet, “Only 3 black women have won Oscars for anything other than acting. 2 of them just happened tonight”.
Those historic wins came only moments after Regina King won Best Supporting Actress for her role in ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’. Also, Three years after the director boycotted the ceremony due to the overwhelming whiteness of its nominees, Spike Lee was up on stage accepting his first ever Oscar.
Lee, who won Best Adapted Screenplay for BlackKklansman, praised the women who helped him get to where he is today, and drew attention to the fact that this year marks 400 years since enslaved people were first forcibly brought to America. “The year, 2019. The year, 1619. History. Her story. 1619. 2019. 400 years”, he said in his typical orator style.
It was a heart-warming moment when the directors of ‘Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse’, which won Best Animated Film shared their sentiments about the Black community. “When we hear that someone’s kid has watched the movie, and turned to them and said, ‘He looks like me’ we feel like we already won”, they said, referring to the film’s young, black protagonist.
April Reign, who created the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite in 2015 which condensed a crucial, complex conversation about diversity into a viral slogan the Academy could no longer ignore, was sitting among the stars.
“Until we are no longer having these conversations about firsts in 2019, until we see everyone having the opportunity, whether it’s race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, indigenous people in this country, until we all have an opportunity to see ourselves represented on screen, not just during awards season but all year long, I’ll still continue to talk about #OscarsSoWhite”, she commented.
Although, there wasn’t a single woman nominated for Best Director, nor was there a female-directed film up for Best Picture, but looking at last night’s winners, if this a sign of things to come, it is a very promising sign indeed.