Writing By Laura

Since the Oscar nominations were announced early this morning I thought I would use my Monday blog post to react to the nominations. I already rearranged my posting schedule by writing about the Golden Globes last Monday instead of the regularly scheduled book review. Well, being a movie fan I decided to do another pop culture posting this week and will post my book review later. Appropriately my book review this month (is about Hollywood) is going to be Ronan Farrow’s nonfiction journalistic exposé of Harvey Weinstein, “Catch and Kill” (it’s a good read, look for that review coming soon).

However this post is not about the gritty grime of scandal in Hollywood and is instead focusing on the celluloid dreams and glitzy glam of cinema in my reflection of the 2020 Oscar Nominations.

I watched the Oscar nominations announcement on YouTube in order to get captions. The Oscars website was another place to go to view it. Here is where you can see a list of the nominations.

I was looking for a few things when looking at the Oscar nominations.

How many People of Color (POC) are nominated? Especially since the Golden Globes was lacking in diversity in the nominees and the winners. Last week I talked about the hashtag from a few years ago that trended: #OscarsSoWhite. Like I said in that Golden Globes post, the immediate years felt more diverse at the Oscars but if the Golden Globes reflects what will happen at the Oscars, the Oscars aren’t feeling diverse anymore. My Reflection: Like The Golden Globes POC were not really represented. Cynthia Erivo for “Harriet” made Best Actress and Parasite (South Korea) got a couple nominations.

Are there women nominated in the non-female awards (not Best Actress, etc.)? My Reflection: Greta Gerwig was nominated for an Adapted Screenplay nomination when she hadn’t been for The Golden Globes. However as someone pointed out on Twitter there were quite a few misses when it came to recognizing women. 

Have the other awards shows and their winners predicted the Oscar nominations and eventual winners? My Reflection: Its still early to say this. See the image I created earlier (posted below) to see the award show schedule.

Reaction

Just as I was underwhelmed by the Golden Globes, I was underwhelmed by these nominations. It’s not until the Oscar Nominations truly reflect the multicultural and multidimensional nature of the world that the Oscars will truly grab the attention of more than just the film industry or film buffs. And for that to happen, Hollywood needs to stop ignoring People of Color, Women and other minorities.

Coming Soon

I will eventually upload my Oscar 2020 ballot/where to watch sheet. Give me a little time to put that together. As always my parents and I will be trying to see the nominees. However this is feeling less and less pressing as the nominations feel not diverse (my opinion).