Nominations for the 95th Academy Awards were released earlier this week, setting off the annual firestorm of indignation from people who felt like their film deserved more recognition.
In reality, out of the hundreds of movies made every year, it is almost a certainty that opinions will vary on who or what deserves a nomination. Most people accept this reality. But not everyone, and especially if the race card can be thrown around.
“Till” director Chinonye Chukwu is the latest example of rampaging the woke film industry by accusing insiders of racism for refusing to nominate her for Best Director.
All of this comes down to, as Chukwu said, that “the Academy Awards are ‘upholding whiteness’ and ‘perpetuating; misogyny against Black women, as Fox News wrote
“We live in a world and work in industries that are so aggressively committed to upholding whiteness and perpetuating an unabashed misogyny towards Black women. And yet. I am forever in gratitude for the greatest lesson of my life – regardless of any challenges or obstacles, I will always have the power to cultivate my own joy, and it is this joy that will continue to be one of my greatest forms of resistance,” Chukwu vented on her Instagram account upon receiving the news.
The 1950s period piece is a biographical drama about Mamie Till-Bradley, the mother of the murdered 14-year-old Emmet Till. The film focuses on her quest for justice in the wake of her son’s horrific killing. The movie was received well by critics; it just didn’t happen to earn a nod from the Academy.
No doubt there is plenty of room for disagreement. It seems that each year fewer and fewer people have seen all, if any, of the films that are often nominated for awards, so while everyone has opinions about certain films they are unlikely to have a comprehensive view of the categories.
No doubt, Chukwu turned in a fine performance. However, there were only five nominations available for every director from the past year. Looper wrote about who got the nod for 2023.
The best director category is particularly competitive with five strong contenders. Ruben Östlund receives his first nomination for the biting comedy “Triangle of Sadness.” He’ll compete against several Oscar veterans including filmmaking icon Steven Spielberg for his revealing retrospective “The Fabelmans.” Martin McDonagh’s comedic tale of friendship “The Banshees of Inisherin” breaks into the nominees alongside Todd Field’s impeccable “Tár.” Last but certainly not least is Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — also known as The Daniels — bewildering “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which leads the charge with an astounding 11 nominations.
Chukwu is putting herself in a tight corner by blaming misogyny on this year’s film snubs. If that’s true, then how would she explain the fact that a woman won Best Director just last year?
Woke Hollywood just keeps trying harder and harder to virtue signal, and it keeps getting hammered by insufferable and eternally ungrateful hacks. Making Chukwu’s perceived reality harder to defend is also the fact that the Academy Awards now demand compliance with diversity initiatives in order to win awards.
Fox News described some of the latest changes to come about in the name of diversity in inclusion, which makes it impossible for future films to win awards if they do not meet racial quotas on their film set and production teams.
To qualify for a nomination, productions must submit a confidential Academy Inclusion Standards form that promotes standards such as “at least one of the lead actors or significant supporting actors” being from a marginalized group and at least two “creative leadership positions and department heads” being filled by an underrepresented minority.
While these forms were introduced for the 2022 and 2023 awards seasons, meeting all the requirements will be necessary for films to qualify for nomination starting with the 2024 Academy Awards.
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