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Analysis
If you’re not into movies, you’re about to experience one of the most annoying seasons on the internet: Oscars season.
The 95th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 12, and, now that we know the nominees, Twitter and other social media sites are going to be filled with discourse about Oscar-nominated films. For the record, I really like movies and I enjoy the discourse, for the most part. (Last year’s discourse went on a bit too long.) In case you need a recap of what happened this week, and what to expect over the next month and a half, here’s what you need to know.
➤ The Oscars left out horror, again.
For some reason, the Academy doesn’t like horror or genre films. Jordan Peele’s Get Out was the rare exception, but his 2022 alien film Nope was completely ignored. In Nope, as Gavia Baker-Whitelaw wrote this week: “Peele is explicitly commenting on the destructive nature of people’s quest for cinematic fame and fortune, explored through the framework of a Jaws-like monster movie. And to tell this story, he seriously upped his game as a director, employing some awe-inspiring audiovisual effects.”
➤ Everything Everywhere All At Once discourse is back.
A24’s EEAAOpremiered at SXSW last March, and now it’s been nominated for 11 Oscars. The film has a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and the audience score is at 89%—the general consensus is the film is good. (Full disclosure: I reviewed it and gave it 5/5 stars.) However, as what happens every year when a film becomes popular and gets a lot of recognition, there are people saying that it’s bad. Expect this tired discourse to continue into March because something like this happens every year.
➤ Women directors were left out, again.
Sarah Polley’s Women Talking was the sole woman-directed title nominated for best picture. No women were nominated for best director, despite a year of lots of good movies made by women.
Why it matters
Thanks to apps like Letterboxd and people sharing clips on TikTok, there’s more film discourse than ever online.
Sure, a lot of those people might not care about an award show like the Oscars. But the nominations are likely to push more of these films into public conversations.