The Oscars miss the chance of historic atonement by snubbing Lily Gladstone
Much of the furore that surrounded the run-up to the 96th Academy Awards surrounded two ‘certainties’ around the ‘Leading Actor’ categories. The first was that Cillian Murphy would become the first Irish actor to win his respective category, leading Oppenheimer to success in the process, while the other was that Lily Gladstone would give the Academy atonement for their sins, making her the first Indigenous American ever to take home an Oscar 50 years after Sacheen Littlefeather was booed off stage.
Alas, only one of these sure-fire bets came through and Gladstone walked away empty-handed in favour of Emma Stone, with even the Poor Things star seeming surprised by the former’s snub. It’s one of the most baffling open-goal misses that the Academy has performed in recent memory. Indeed, Gladstone’s win would have gone some way in providing atonement for the misdeeds of the Oscars those many years ago.
It was only back in 2022 that the Academy admitted to its wrongdoing, apologising to Littlefeather for heckling and booing her when she collected Marlon Brando’s award for him on his behalf in 1973 and discussed the ill-treatment of “American Indians” at the very same time. “For too long, the courage you showed has been unacknowledged,” the Academy stated, “For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration”.
Gladstone’s nomination was not only politically apt, but it was also thoroughly deserved, providing Martin Scorsese’s American odyssey about the systematic murder of the Osage people its emotional backbone. Without her contribution, the film might have simply felt like a bleak Scorsese crime tale headed up by regulars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, but Gladstone gave it a solemn sincerity that elevated it above many of the director’s other recent triumphs.
Neither is this an attack on Stone, whose performance as Bella Baxter in Yorgos Lanthimos’ magical comedy-drama Poor Things was nothing short of extraordinary, having now won two Oscars for both her collaborations with the Greek filmmaker.
But, for an institution that so regularly flirts with the idea that it’s someone’s ‘time’ to win an award, much like the industry stalwart Christopher Nolan who finally claimed an Oscar in 2024, it’s bizarre that Gladstone’s name wasn’t already etched onto the trophy before a name was announced. Instead, Scorsese’s epic ended up as one of the night’s biggest losers, walking away with no wins at all.
Having been panicking in an identity crisis for about a decade at this point, struggling through controversies that claimed the award show didn’t celebrate ethnic diversity enough or fairly represented female filmmakers, the decision to award Gladstone the Oscar seemed like a tap-in. But, while the Academy seems to have in part successfully shaken these aforementioned controversies, such a decision, as well as its failure to properly recognise the power and political pertinence of Jonathan Glazer’s Zone of Interest in the ‘Best Picture’ category, demonstrate that they still have quite a way to go.
Gladstone will, most certainly, return with a vengeance to the awards fold in the coming years if her performance in Killers of the Flower Moon is anything to go by, but many will be befuddled about how she was unable to win in a category that seemed to be set up for her success. For an awards show so painfully cautious of self-image and their dwindling relevance in the public eye, snubbing Gladstone was, quite simply, a missed opportunity of historic atonement.
