Anghus Houvouras on the Academy Awards and a lack of diversity…
‘Armchair quarterback’. It’s a popular phrase here in the United States, referring to those know-it-all fans who sit in their armchairs yelling at the screen during a football game. Some d-bag who is certain that he or she can make better decisions than the coaches or players while watching a competitive sport. Those sad sacks who think they know better than everyone else, even the well-trained athletes playing the game. The concept of the armchair expert grew beyond that of sports like a malignancy. The armchair isn’t in front of the TV anymore, it’s in front of the computer monitor. Thanks to online anonymity, everyone can be an armchair expert on any topic.
The Internet gave everybody an armchair.
I’m going somewhere with this. Stay with me. If you spent any time online today, you might be led to believe that by large swaths of individuals who believe the most prestigious awards show of the year is a misogynistic and racist institution that takes great pleasure in maintaining an elitist status quo. It’s all bullshit, of course. The real problems with diversity in film can be attributed to an industry that is slow to embrace more female voices behind the camera. Things are improving, albeit slowly. Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor was the city planner ever gilded with a shiny trophy for his efforts. Moving on.
On paper, it’s easy to understand some of the vitriol that is lobbed at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Cries that the Director category is more often than not one giant sausage party. And while the progressively minded would like to stand behind the idea of a more diverse Hollywood, can anyone make a serious claim that Angelina Jolie’s omission for Unbroken is somehow a sign that Oscar voters are averse to Director’s who lack a “Y” chromosome.
But if we’re being honest here, none of this is about Angelina Jolie, who my friend Amy Pascal tells me is, at best, ‘Marginally Talented’. This is about Selma director Ava DuVernay, who is the ‘Two-fer’ of this particular argument (Thank you 30 Rock) haters can use her to claim both sexism AND racism. I’m not sure whether we would call that “Sacism’ or ‘Rexism’. She’s the diversity debate’s perfect storm: a black woman who directed an award caliber movie left off the final ballot. However, there’s an intrinsic, troubling problem with this debate.
This anemic, politically correct nonsense ends up being more racist, since it makes people assume someone like Ava DuVernay deserves one of the five Best Director nominations because she’s black and/or a woman. I hate that kind of simple-minded thinking. There’s nothing wrong with thinking that Ava DuVernay is deserving of a nomination. There is, however, a problem, if you’re unable to back up that thought with a case for why she does. You can’t just scream PATRIARCHY or RACISM without explaining how exactly they apply to the Best Director nominations.
There isn’t a filmmaker in the Best Director category that doesn’t deserve to be there. Wes Anderson made the best film of his career. Linklater delivered his masterpiece, the fulfilment of all the promise people saw in him two decades ago when he first released Slacker. Innaritu’s Birdman was a polarizing marvel that elicited strong opinions and has the stamp of a true artist. Bennet Miller has amassed some fans and I couldn’t tell you a single thing about Morten Tyldum except for the fact that he made a really good movie with The Imitation Game. There’s no chumps in this category. No pity vote for an old director who never got his due, or some sham nomination like James Cameron for Avatar. These are legitimately talented directors.
The same basic logic applies to the Best Actor category. The Hollywood Reporter was quick to put out a ‘ALL WHITE NOMINEES’ article pretty quickly, correctly recognizing that not one of the Best Actor nominees were black. Does that mean they weren’t deserving? Who in this category shouldn’t have been nominated? Name names, party people. Don’t just step up, declare bias, and then stand there with arms folded and a disgruntled mug. I need reasons, not accusations. I need a healthy debate, not bullshit. Tell me why, in your educated opinion, why Eddie Redmayne or Bradley Cooper don’t belong in the category and why your candidate (in this case, Selma’s David Oyelowo) does. But they can’t, because that would require abandoning hyperbole which is the only weapon so many of these writers employ. I swear, most of these hit pieces read like they were written in advance waiting for the nominations to be announced practically stumbling over themselves to hit the ‘submit’ button as soon as they realize their version of the perfect nomination field hasn’t been realized.
Why do the so-called progressives believe the nominations are only fair if they represent a certain demographic snapshot? Why did films featuring black directors & stars become so entitled? As if they deserve nominations simply for existing? Because of that, the entire Academy voting body is racist? That’s an epic amount of bullshit being peddled, and it doesn’t help further any cause. It’s not going to put more women behind the camera or more black actors or actresses in the nomination category. This is the byproduct of entitlement, and frankly a rather embarrassing attempt at shaming the Academy for some attention.
If we truly want to achieve enlightenment we should hope for a world where Academy voters cast ballots based on the content of a character or skill of a director; not the color of their skin, or the composition of their chromosomes.
Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the novel My Career Suicide Note, is available from Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Z2vq4CudKRk&list=PL18yMRIfoszFJHnpNzqHh6gswQ0Srpi5E
Originally published January 19, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
