A critique of The Academy’s judgment based on this year’s ceremony
Despite being the most famous awards show of the year in popular culture, the Oscars have recently lost quite a few viewers, more because of the Academy’s questionable judgment in awarding the prizes than because of the event itself. In fact, many claim that its purpose is anything but to recognize and reward art.
In that case, what are the Oscars for? If the Academy does not seek to reward the art of cinema, then what is its intention? Is it true that its credibility has been lost or is it just a vain criticism from viewers? Well, maybe the people are right.
The Academy said on its website that one of its missions is “to recognize and uphold excellence in the motion picture arts and sciences.” However, it seems their actions say otherwise, especially with this year’s ceremony.
Among all the films for this year there is one that has stood out the most, and not for the right reasons. “Emilia Pérez” had thirteen Oscar nominations, making it the film with the most nominations.
It’s no lie that “Emilia Pérez” is barely a mediocre film. On one hand, the ignorance from which the French film approaches real issues such as disappearances in Mexico, transsexuality and corruption makes it a mockery of such issues.
On the other hand, the product itself lacks quality in almost every category, especially in the musical one. Being a film set in Mexico, both its dialogue and songs are mostly in Spanish. But the lyrics not only don’t rhyme or connect with the sound, they don’t even make sense.
“Emilia Pérez” is a poorly told story that turned out offensive. The most surprising thing is not that it has been nominated in so many categories, but that in each of them it lacks excellence.
On the day of the ceremony, people were afraid that the film would sweep all the awards as it had done in other awards shows. Fortunately for some, it did not. But it did take home two Oscars, among those Best Original Song for its song “El Mal.”
Then, if the film is not excellent at all, why did the Academy nominate it so much? And not only that, why did they decide to give it an award for its weakest category, having composers like Elton John and Diane Warren among the nominees? What is theintention behind these choices?
The answer we will never know, but we can speculate. Since the incident in 2014 where it came to light that over 90% of the voters were older white men, the Academy has tried to be more inclusive.
Knowing that the film not only deals with the issue of transsexuality, but also with the situation in a Latin American country, it is likely that the Academy considered nominating and awarding “Emilia Pérez” as an act of inclusivity. Unfortunately for them, since the film practically mocks these issues, the Academy’s action turned out not to be inclusive at all.
On the bright side, the Academy also nominated and awarded two independent films: “Flow” and “Anora.” The former won for Best Animated Feature, and the latter, in addition to four other awards, took home the award for Best Picture.
Unlike “Emilia Pérez,” these two films did deserve the awards they received, both in excellence and art. But is it really because of their merit that the Academy decided to award them?
It is well known that independent films are often ignored by organizations like the Academy. It’s always the bigger studios with more money and more commercial themes that get an Oscar.
Is this another attempt by the Academy to be inclusive? Not that the aforementioned films don’t deserve their awards, but how can we believe that the same organization that awards a mediocre film awards beautiful films based on art? This is not art, this is business.
Both the countless thefts in previous years and what happened this year are just evidence that the Academy has no solid base from which to justify its decisions. That’s why people don’t take it seriously anymore.
Art was not what brought the Academy to life, for we know that its creation was the solution for the pioneer actors not to unionize. So why should we expect it to be art that keeps it alive?