It’s the #WhitemansOscar: Nomination Reactions, 2020

E: Yep, that’s what I figured was going to happen.   Oscar loves what it loves – in this case, Joker, 1917, Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, and The Irishman.  Films by white men, for white men, starring white men, featuring almost no women or people of color.  Let’s review:

White Man’s Oscars? Only Tomorrow Can Tell: Oscar Nomination Predictions, 2020

E: There are two ways that this can go.  We can end up with a slate of nominations that ignores many of the best reviewed films of the year, continuing a trend that ignores well-received works by women and people of color.  Or the Academy can prove that inducting new members has made a difference in their ability to look for work beyond ever narrowing limits.  Or Oscars will narrow it’s vision, promoting a world that consists largely of powerful white men (movie stars, race car drivers, mobsters) behaving badly.

Every once in a while, Oscar bucks the trend of the precursor award shows and rights a few wrongs. I’m going to be honest and say I don’t have a lot of hope, but until Monday morning, I’m going to live in a Schrodinger’s box of possibilities.  Let me dazzle you with possibilities, and remind you of what’s out there, before we come back to earth with the blander slate we’re likely to receive in what, for me, is turning out to be an uninspiring year.