The 2023 Oscars has failed female filmmakers
Taking home the Oscar for ‘Best Director’ for Nomadland, the Chinese filmmaker Chloé Zhao made cinematic history in 2021, becoming the first woman of colour to win the coveted gong. Just one year later, the New Zealand director Jane Campion won the same award for The Power of the Dog, making history once more for the first time female filmmakers have won in the category in consecutive years.
Having long been criticised for its lack of diverse representation, the Academy Awards seemed to be going through a major renaissance, reflecting on decades of discriminatory voting to piece together a ceremony that better reflected modern ideals. Announcing in 2020 that the awards show had doubled the number of female members from 1,446 to 3,179 and had tripled their members of colour from 554 to 1,787, the proof of their self-evaluation and restructuring was in the proverbial pudding.
Yet, just two years after this perceived step forward and back-to-back Best Director win for Zhao and Campion, the nominations for the 95th Academy Awards have shut out all female filmmakers from the category. Somehow, despite the discussion about female representation rearing its head on an annual basis around award season, audiences and critics are, once again, discussing the lack of proper representation in the category.
It’s not like there was a lack of quality female-backed movies in 2022, either, with Aftersun being touted as one of the greatest films about modern loneliness, mental health and the ethereal melancholy of nostalgia. Search the film-centric social media pages, and word of Charlotte Wells’ deft direction becomes apparent, yet typically the only representation the film will receive at the Oscars will be in the form of Paul Mescal, who is up for ‘Best Leading Actor‘.
No doubt, Mescal’s inclusion in this category is mandatory in a year in which the actor captured the hearts of audiences with his performances in both Wells’ tender drama as well as the TV series Normal People. Still, with Aftersun created with so much female talent, it’s insulting that Mescal was deemed the only aspect worthy of credit. Whilst it’s blatantly evident that Charlotte Wells should be honoured with nominations for ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Original Screenplay’, the Academy also shouldn’t have ignored the remarkable efforts of the young Frankie Corio for ‘Best Supporting Actress’.
Neither should Aftersun have been the only female-backed movie on the Academy’s radar, with Gina Prince-Bythewood providing the thrilling action drama, The Woman King, Maria Schrader reflecting on generations of Hollywood misogyny with She Said, and Laura Poitras enrapturing critics with the documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. Indeed, nominating Poitras for her enlightening portrait of the life of Nan Goldin would’ve been a landmark moment for the awards show, though it seems as though the Oscars are done with defeating archaic ceremony records for now at least.
The list of 2023 Academy Award nominees feels like a leap back in time to an era before ‘Oscars so white’ and ‘Me Too’, where the Academy recognised merely the movies with the biggest stars and Hollywood value. With two billion dollar-earning sequels in the running for ‘Best Picture’, the most amount of any ceremony in Oscars history, the Academy Awards are attempting to force themselves back into social relevance rather than evolve with the changing demands and values of modern audience members.
By breaking with convention and recognising quality films from around the world, from female filmmakers and diverse voices, the Oscars will gain greater future traction. Giving a platform to films already screaming from their commercial soapboxes merely encourages audiences to turn away from the Academy as a leading voice and view previous leaps forward as mere PR stunts.
