Icon: enlarge
Actress Sidney Flanigan in "Never Rarely Sometimes Always": On Oscar course
Photo: Uncredited / picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS
The film was enthusiastically received at several important festivals, at the Berlinale 2020 it was one of the favorites for the Golden Bear.
And now "Never Rarely Sometimes Always" is even being traded as a candidate for an Oscar.
Industry experts give the production a good chance of making it onto the list of nominated films to be announced on March 15th.
But someone who has a say in who wins the Oscars will not even watch "Never Rarely Sometimes Always": the filmmaker Kieth Merrill ("Mission on Four Paws") is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in whose hands the Oscar award rests.
And he's a conservative Christian.
And as such, he rubs himself against the content of “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” without even having seen the film.
Because it's about abortion.
Icon: enlarge
Filmmaker Eliza Hittman (left) on the set: Will the Oscar be awarded by "old, white, puritanical white guards"?
Photo: © Focus Features / courtesy Everett Collection / picture alliance / Everett Collection
The independent drama by US director Eliza Hittman, which was advertised under the title »Never Rarely, Sometimes Always«, tells of two girls from rural Pennsylvania who secretly travel to New York because one of them has become pregnant unintentionally and wants to have an abortion there without parental consent.
The film adopts a rigorously female perspective and tells of friendship and solidarity among women despite the bleak moments.
The academy, the age club?
Merril, 80, is already rubbing against the synopsis.
As the industry magazine »Variety« reports, the filmmaker explained in an Instagram post that has since been deleted: »I got a copy of the film, but as a Christian, father of eight children and 39 grandchildren and as a pro-life supporter, I have zero Interested in watching a woman travel across the country so someone can murder her unborn child. "
"Never Rarely Sometimes Always" director Hittman herself drew attention to the process and approached the Acadamy publicly.
She asked whether the election committee responsible for awarding the Oscar was made up of "old, white, Puritan guards" and whether other Academy members had made a conscious decision not to view their film.
The conflict, small and personal as it may seem at first glance, goes far beyond the isolated case of Hittman's abortion drama.
Because in the last few years there have been repeated warnings that the Academy responsible for awarding the Oscars must be composed more diverse so that the award-winning films can also be more diverse.
For years, the association, with up to 10,000 voting members, was considered an old man's club.
More women, more people of color
More women, more people of color, more young people - that was also the demand at last year's award ceremony.
Of the 819 invitations that the Academy then sent out to filmmakers in June to recruit them as new members, 45 percent went to women and 36 percent to People of Color.
In addition, last September the association formulated guidelines according to which films worthy of awards should be more diverse in terms of topics and personnel.
The fact that an old, white Academy man now says that because of the topic he will not even bother with a film that is celebrated at festivals and in the media as cinematographic art shows how long the road to real diversity is for Oscar still is.
Due to the corona crisis, the 93rd film award ceremony will not take place until April 25th in Los Angeles this year.
Icon: The mirror