Actors of color over-represented among the nominees, women and filmmakers of Asian origin competing for the best director award… This year, the Oscars are breaking diversity records.
The result of real change, and not of mere fluke due to the pandemic.
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One of the factors in this shift was undoubtedly the reform initiated by the Academy.
The institution behind the prestigious film award has worked to broaden the recruitment of its members and make them more reflective of society.
"I think these Oscars will be remembered as those where the changes introduced six years ago, in the wake of #OscarsSoWhite, have kept their promise," said
black American actor Dwayne Barnes (
Menace II Society
), in an editorial on the specialized site
Deadline
.
The late Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis (
The Blues of Ma Rainey
), Daniel Kaluuya (
Judas & The Black Messiah
) and South Korean Yuh-Jung Youn (
Minari
) all have a good chance of winning Sunday among the actors.
As for Chloé Zhao, born in China, she is favorite for the Oscar for best director with
Nomadland
.
An overhaul of the members of the Academy
The #OscarsSoWhite campaign was launched in January 2015 on social networks to denounce the overwhelming majority of white candidates rewarded that year by an Academy mainly made up of elderly Anglo-Saxon men.
Under pressure, the Academy had indeed recognized in 2016 that its 6,000 members at the time were 93% white and 76% male, with a median age of 63 years.
She announced in the wake of a doubling of women and members of ethnic minorities by 2020 to breathe new blood into its workforce.
Read also: The Oscars impose diversity criteria to be eligible for the trophy for best film
The bet was taken last summer, and professionals voting for the Oscars now number around 33% women and 19% members from “
under-represented minorities
” (1,787 in total).
"It will have taken a few years for it to take but there is every reason to hope that this change (...) is not a hazard,"
writes Dwayne Barnes, stressing that he has long
"surrendered to countless auditions while having the impression that the dice were loaded ”
.
The "
perfect combination
"
After #OscarsSoWhite followed the movements demanding the recognition of women in all film professions, in front of and behind the camera, driven by the revelations of the Weinstein affair.
“It all really rocked the coconut palm. And this year for the first time, because the Covid-19 has pushed back the schedule of big productions, it left the field open to other films, ”
analyzes Sasha Stone, founder of the
Awards Daily
site
which has been scrutinizing film awards since 1999 and refers to Hollywood.
“But it turns out that a lot of these films were made by filmmakers of color and women,” she
explains.
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With theaters closed and viewers forced to use streaming,
"it was the perfect combination
.
"
“There were the movies, the movie community and they could do whatever they wanted without having to worry about the box office,
” says Sasha Stone.
The scale taken by video on demand during the pandemic
"certainly played"
because
"we have observed that diversity on television has increased much faster than in cinema"
, confirms Darnell Hunt, a sociologist specializing in the representation of minorities in the media at the University of Los Angeles.
The success of streaming
"has contributed to submit to the Academy a range of films much more diverse than what they are used to seeing and that has translated into the nominations"
, estimates the researcher, who leads each year since 2014 a study on diversity in Hollywood.
The Oscars,
Hollywood's
"s
alade
"
For him as for Sasha Stone, the dazzling progress made by the Academy will undoubtedly not be as spectacular in the years to come but he
"does not imagine that it can become again as before"
.
"Everything is going in the right direction, the Academy continues to be more diverse and has introduced new criteria for the best feature film category"
which should strengthen from 2022 the presence of ethnic minorities, women and LGBT people, in both in front of and behind the screen.
Will this be enough to change Hollywood as a whole?
Sasha Stone hopes so but notes that
"film prices are now really disconnected from the box office, they have become a niche"
.
However, according to her, the film industry seeks above all to
"make money"
.
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“If male directors bring in more, they will continue to be engaged. And if the white actors generate more money, they will continue to be engaged, ”
she said.
Hollywood
“wants to make money but also wants to have a good image and the Oscars are helping them with that.
It's like McDonald's: they sell Big Macs all over the world but they have this salad that makes it look like they care about their health.
This is what the Oscars are for Hollywood: the salad ”
.