tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/green-book-66212/articles
Green Book – The Conversation
2019-02-25T09:48:29Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/111733
2019-02-25T09:48:29Z
2019-02-25T09:48:29Z
#Oscars2019 play it safe with Green Book - but don’t look to the Academy for enlightened thinking
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260643/original/file-20190225-26171-h0omju.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali in Green Book, the film that surprised many by winning Best Picture.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6966692/mediaviewer/rm903248640">Patti Perrett/Universal Studios</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year it is the same story: the Academy comes so close to catching up with the rest of the film world, only to award the Oscar for Best Picture to the most middling of the bunch. </p>
<p>Many cinephiles the world over were likely scratching their heads, or rolling their eyes, or perhaps throwing something at the television, when Julia Roberts called out <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6966692/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Green Book</a>’s name, a film the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-oscars-green-book-worst-best-picture-winner-20190224-story.html">LA Times</a> later dubbed “the worst Best Picture winner since ‘Crash’”. </p>
<p>The film is the story of an unlikely friendship between musician Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) and his driver Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), as they tour America’s South in the 1960s. It sits in a long line of Hollywood films that feature a white protagonist “saving” the black character, who is rendered passive in the process. </p>
<p>The film has been <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/01/220609/green-book-movie-controversy-racism-don-shirley-family-story">denounced</a> by Shirley’s family for its depiction of him as an isolated figure, estranged from his three brothers and the black community. (In hindsight, maybe <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_(2004_film)">Crash</a> wasn’t that bad?)</p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7349662/?ref_=nv_sr_1">BlacKkKlansman</a> director Spike Lee was apparently so incensed by the Best Picture announcement that <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/02/spike-lee-green-book-storms-out-oscars-blackkklansman-jordan-peele-1202564402/">he stormed to the back of the theatre</a> only to be ushered back into his seat. He and director Jordan Peele reportedly did not clap the winners. Later, with a drink in hand, Lee told the press room that the “<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/spike-lee-reacts-green-books-oscars-win-1190271">ref made a bad call</a>”.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Director Spike Lee said that when Green Book won, he thought “the ref made a bad call”.</span></figcaption>
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<p>That a film with a white saviour narrative won the big prize shouldn’t really be much of a shock though.</p>
<p>The Academy Awards have battled with a number of controversies over the last few years, from #Oscarssowhite to <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/?ref_=nv_sr_1">La La Land</a> being mistakenly read out as the winner of Best Picture in 2017 over <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4975722/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Moonlight</a>. An <a href="http://graphics.latimes.com/oscars-2016-voters/">LA Times report</a> in 2016 identified 91% of Oscar voters as white and 76% male.</p>
<p>It’s clear that the Academy needs to continue to up its game in diversifying the voting demographic.</p>
<p>The role of campaigning, and studios selecting which films to push, also stops the awards from genuinely reflecting the best works. Other films, notably by women directors, were shut out this year. Lynne Ramsay’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5742374/?ref_=nv_sr_1">You Were Never Really Here</a> and Marielle Heller’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4595882/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Can You Ever Forgive Me</a> are just two that deserved wider recognition. </p>
<p>The big takeaway message from this year’s ceremony, if it wasn’t clear already, is that we shouldn’t look to the Academy for any enlightened thinking. </p>
<h2>A sea of safeness and whiteness</h2>
<p>The optics of the Green Book team accepting their award could not have been more glaring. A collection of predominantly white men (and Mahershala Ali and Octavia Spencer to the side) pronounced that the film, to paraphrase, is about love and loving each other despite our differences and finding out that we are the same people.</p>
<p>For a film that is meant to be about race relations in America, all we got from the speech was a sea of safeness and whiteness.</p>
<p>In 2010, the Academy expanded the Best Picture category to up to ten nominees. This change also saw the introduction of <a href="http://collider.com/how-best-picture-oscar-voting-works/">preferential voting</a>. All voting members rank the year’s nominees from first through to eighth. If the film with the most first place votes doesn’t break 50%, then the film with the lowest first place votes is eliminated and its votes redistributed according to preferences. </p>
<p>This will then occur with the next lowest ranking film until a film cracks the 50% margin. As such, second and third place votes begin to count just as much as first place votes.</p>
<p>This preferential voting system results in a more agreeable film winning over a divisive one. This is perhaps why <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Shape of Water</a> won last year over<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5027774/?ref_=nv_sr_1"> Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri</a>.</p>
<p>It also creates an interesting divide between critics and much of the film-going public and the Academy voters. Leading up to the awards, critical consensus saw <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6155172/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Roma</a> as the more agreeable choice, with Green Book being the divisive nominee. Turns out, this perspective was reversed in the world of the Academy and Green Book was deemed the most agreeable.</p>
<h2>A year of back peddling</h2>
<p>The awards this year were contentious before the ceremony even began. Kevin Hart’s previous homophobic remarks resulted in him <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-07/comedian-kevin-hart-steps-down-as-oscars-host-homophobic-tweets/10595556">stepping down</a>. Four awards – cinematography, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, and live-action short – were going to be cut from the live broadcast. The Oscars also initially snubbed nominated songs from the show, which is <a href="https://pitchfork.com/news/63773-anohni-why-i-am-not-attending-the-academy-awards/">not a new occurrence </a>.</p>
<p>The Academy then did a lot of back peddling. There was no main host, all awards were included in the live broadcast and four of the nominated songs were performed live, with the omission of All the Stars by Kendrick Lamar and SZA from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Black Panther</a> due to “logistics and timing”. The Academy is really bad at reading the room until it’s too late.</p>
<p>John Ottman, accepting the award for Best Editing of Bohemian Rhapsody, said the production was a labour of love with everyone bonding together. This perspective was an odd contrast to recent statements made by Rami Malek, in which he said that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/04/rami-malek-says-working-with-director-bryan-singer-on-bohemian-rhapsody-was-not-pleasant">working with the film’s sometime director Bryan Singer</a> “was not pleasant”. </p>
<p>In his acceptance speech for Best Actor, Malek also identified Bohemian Rhapsody as being about an unapologetically gay immigrant, yet <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/arts/an-open-letter-to-the-many-fans-of-bohemian-rhapsody-from-a-concerned-queer-1.4892284">it has been reported that</a> Mercury was bisexual. If only the film could have been celebratory of Mercury’s sexuality. Still, the homophobic moralising will most likely be overshadowed by Green Book’s win.</p>
<p>One other glaring lowlight of the show was Broadway actress Carol Channing being omitted from the In Memoriam section. While there are eyebrow raising omissions every year, to not include Channing, who was show business personified, is sad indeed.</p>
<h2>Highlights</h2>
<p>In the sea of disappointment, there <em>were</em> several delightful moments. The choices of presenters seemed laughably odd. Serena Williams introducing <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517451/?ref_=nv_sr_1">A Star is Born</a> and Queen Latifah introducing The Favourite were interesting to say the least. Barbra Streisand introduced BlacKkKlansman because apparently she and Spike Lee both grew up in Brooklyn. </p>
<p>Lee, who won an honorary Oscar in 2016, won this year for Best Adapted Screenplay. The reception the film received was notably more rapturous than the one given to Green Book for Best Original Screenplay. The difference was palpable. Lee noted that February was Black History Month in the US:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>1619, 2019. 400 years. 400 years our ancestors were stolen from mother Africa and brought to Jamestown, Virginia enslaved. Our ancestors worked the land, from can’t see at morning to can’t see at night.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The ceremony did see a significant number of women artists of colour taking to the stage to collect awards, from Hannah Beachler, production designer for Black Panther, to Regina King winning for her role in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7125860/?ref_=nv_sr_1">If Beale Street Could Talk</a>.</p>
<p>Other highlights included Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s performance of the Best Original Song, Shallow, which evoked old school Hollywood glamour. The chemistry between the two is palpable.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper perform Shallow, winner of Best Original Song at this year’s Oscars.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Joyous upsets included Olivia Colman winning Best Actress over the hot favourite Glenn Close, who was nominated for her seventh time. Colman gave a scattered and heartwarming speech which won’t be forgotten anytime soon.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Olivia Colman accepts the award for Best Actress at the 2019 Oscars.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The ceremony tried to pitch itself as being liberal, with several mentions of metaphorically tearing down walls. It’s clear though, that in Hollywood, this will always happen on the power players’ terms. The Academy Awards will never be as progressive as we want them to be. If that’s what you are looking for, then tune into the Indie Spirit awards.</p>
<p>In the end, final Oscars presenter Julia Roberts was drowned out by music emanating from the orchestra in the pit as she closed the show. Even the producers were done. Let’s just remember the select moments of joy and forget the rest ever happened.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111733/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Richards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Many cinephiles were probably surprised at Green Book’s Best Picture win - but given the Academy’s track record, it shouldn’t be that much of a shock.
Stuart Richards, Lecturer in Screen Studies, University of South Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/111561
2019-02-21T13:59:28Z
2019-02-21T13:59:28Z
Green Book highlights the problems of ‘driving while black’, both then and now
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259912/original/file-20190220-148513-jsn8dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Patti Perret - © 2018 Universal Studios</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Early in the Oscar-winning movie Green Book, one of the main characters paraphrases the purpose of the titular guide book given to him for his new job. It’s for “travelling while black”, explains Tony Vallelonga to his incredulous wife, Dolores. Echoing a satirical jibe in circulation today – the “crime” of “driving while black” – the film immediately draws a continuum between the racial divisions of the past and their persistence into the present.</p>
<p>Set in 1962, the story centres on the relationship between cultured African American concert pianist, Dr Donald Shirley (Mahershala Ali), and white working-class bouncer, Tony “Lip” Vallelonga, an Italian American (Viggo Mortensen). Hired by Shirley as a driver/bodyguard for a concert tour of America’s Deep South, Vallelonga is unrefined, quick-tempered and displays racist attitudes. The film suggests that these are a result of ignorance and constructed tribal loyalties, and thus ripe for challenge – though this is clunkily executed in places.</p>
<p>Long hours on the road in this interracial buddy movie lead the two men to confront each other’s prejudices on race and class. Together with situations they encounter on the trip, these experiences turn their initially distant relationship into a warmhearted and enduring friendship.</p>
<p>Like most historical dramas, the film has been met with questions about its accuracy. We’re told at the outset that it was inspired by a true story, and the screenplay was co-written by Vallelonga’s son Nick, a director and screenwriter, who <a href="http://time.com/5453443/true-story-behind-green-book-movie/">describes researching the story</a> with Shirley and his father. Shirley’s family, however, <a href="https://www.blackenterprise.com/don-shirley-the-green-book-family-blasts-movie/">dispute several aspects</a> of the film. </p>
<h2>Staying safe</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/history-green-book-african-american-travelers-180958506/">Green Book guide</a>, which was used from the mid-1930s to mid-1960s, was a vital aid for African Americans. Listing motels, shops, restaurants and other businesses across America – and later, other countries, too – its purpose was to mitigate the serious risk of racial violence and humiliation <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/06/01/life-or-death-for-black-travelers-how-fear-led-to-the-negro-motorist-green-book/?utm_term=.7122bf82a9fb">faced by black people while travelling</a>. </p>
<p>It covered states where officially sanctioned segregation – “Jim Crow” – operated in the American South. But the guide also <a href="http://time.com/5457827/green-book-history/">covered northern and other states in America</a>, anywhere de facto segregation and racism also presented risks for black Americans – a geographical reality which is fleetingly acknowledged but not made clear here, or in many other films, which similarly focus on the South. The Green Book also reflected the upwardly mobile attitude of the wider post-war thrust in America for social mobility and consumption, <a href="http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Race/R_Casestudy/R_Casestudy3.htm">particularly car ownership</a>. For African Americans the book’s tagline: “Carry your Green Book with you … you may need it!”, only just hinted at the menace of racist encounters the guidebook was there to prevent.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259574/original/file-20190218-56243-138lbu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259574/original/file-20190218-56243-138lbu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259574/original/file-20190218-56243-138lbu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259574/original/file-20190218-56243-138lbu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259574/original/file-20190218-56243-138lbu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259574/original/file-20190218-56243-138lbu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259574/original/file-20190218-56243-138lbu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">As the movie progresses, Vallelonga and Dr Shirley form a bond.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2018 Universal Pictures</span></span>
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<p>Vallelonga expects “problems” to arise on the trip, but has only a vague sense of the humiliating reality of life for many African Americans. Hailing from multicultural New York and part of an established Italian American community, the argument goes, Vallelonga appears to have been shielded from the significant jeopardy suffered by black Americans.</p>
<p>The film’s broad brush strokes – a more racially sophisticated North versus the backward South – belie the ubiquitous reality of <a href="https://theconversation.com/charlottesville-belies-racisms-deep-roots-in-the-north-101567">historic and present-day racism across the US</a>. But it succeeds in commenting here on the absence of awareness of large parts of White America – <a href="https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/10347165/One%20Year%20Later%20and%20the%20Myth%20of%20a%20PostRacial%20Society_DBR.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">then and now</a> – about the true levels of racism experienced by black Americans.</p>
<p>The Deep South presented a terrifying risk for African Americans. Between 1877 and 1950, there were more than <a href="https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/explore">4,000 racial lynchings</a> of men, women and children in southern states – a system of terror designed to keep black citizens subservient.</p>
<p>Green Book’s protagonists must drive further to locate hotels where Shirley can safely stay – and we observe several other humiliations he is forced to suffer. Mistakenly straying from the Green Book’s itinerary, the travellers also drive through a “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/opinion/lweb07sundown.html">sundown town</a>”. These were municipalities and suburbs – an astonishing 10,000 of them across the US at one point – which had successfully “removed” their black populations. Any African Americans working or passing through them <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2018/01/26/feature/traveling-while-black-why-some-americans-are-afraid-to-explore-their-own-country/?utm_term=.1df8cf7105cd%22">had to leave by sunset</a>.</p>
<h2>Black stories, white directors</h2>
<p>White directors telling stories about race are often criticised for insensitivity and racially tone-deaf filmmaking. The charge – frequently justified – is that such stories are told from a white perspective, with black characters far from the centre of their own narratives, and often drawn in a fairly one-dimensional manner. Another criticism is the “white saviour” storyline, where a white hero “saves the day” in a narrative which shrinks the central role, story and agency of black characters.</p>
<p>These elements are present in Green Book, but the situation is more nuanced. The film, made by white director Peter Farrelly, foregrounds the white saviour issue by making it part of the narrative. Vallelonga is employed for the very purpose of protecting his boss from trouble. Shirley has exercised agency and choice in employing this protector – one who must also carry his bags and open doors. </p>
<p>The requirement for a white saviour on the trip is a wider indictment of White America, which allowed racial inequality and terror to persist. And while the film is anchored around Vallelonga – we meet his family, his character experiences a far greater evolution through the narrative – Shirley’s character is also explored. A complex and brave man, his life is situated in both a public and marginal space, at the intersection of several competing narratives of identity. </p>
<p>The film also seeks to emphasise that a cultural conditioning of white superiority underpins both the profound racism woven into the fabric of Jim Crow, and also the racial prejudice Vallelonga exhibits at a different end of the spectrum – something he initially refutes but comes to understand.</p>
<h2>Present imperfect</h2>
<p>Like other historical films, Green Book uses the past to speak to the present. Today, the disproportionate numbers of non-white, particularly black citizens in the US stopped by police for traffic violations has led to the satirical charge of widespread racial profiling – “<a href="https://www.aclu.org/report/driving-while-black-racial-profiling-our-nations-highways">driving while black</a>”.</p>
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<p>The practice of stopping and seizing African Americans on the public highway has long been used in America to intimidate and restrict black people, as <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/lpsyr24&id=131&men_tab=srchresults">far back as the 1600s</a>. Today, traffic stops can function as probable cause for further police investigation, and can <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/the-stop-race-police-traffic/">be humiliating, stoke fear</a> – and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/05/missouri-driving-while-black-st-louis">damage race relations</a>. Minorities often feel it sends a message that they “don’t belong” – a message that chimes with a recent <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41975573">resurgence in hate crime</a> and the visible rise in white power movements.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/embracing-the-silent-majority-donald-trump-brings-back-the-worst-of-1960s-america-58020">Embracing the 'silent majority' – Donald Trump brings back the worst of 1960s America</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Green Book is set in the early 1960s but its resonances with the present show that, when it comes to racial harmony and equality, today’s America still has some distance to travel.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111561/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Teresa Hagan receives funding from AHRC.</span></em></p>
Winner of the 2019 Oscar for best picture, Green Book highlights the history of racism in America and has lessons for today.
Teresa Hagan, Postgraduate researcher, University of East Anglia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/111395
2019-02-11T14:59:44Z
2019-02-11T14:59:44Z
BAFTAs 2019: diverse set of winners led by The Favourite and Roma bodes well for the Oscars
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258191/original/file-20190211-174890-1mw7oxd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C588%2C3333%2C2539&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Olivia Colman winning best actress for The Favourite.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Copyright: BAFTA. Digital Asset Management Software by Third Light</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It was largely as expected. The 2019 <a href="http://www.bafta.org/film/awards/ee-british-academy-film-awards-nominees-winners-2019">BAFTA</a> film and television awards ceremony was dominated by two films – The Favourite, a romp through 18th-century British history, and Roma, a love letter to director Alfonso Cuarón’s home town of Mexico City.</p>
<p>The Favourite has been greeted with considerable critical acclaim in the UK and it was no surprise that it took home seven awards, including best British film. But the best film gong went to Roma and Cuarón also picked up best director. The Netflix film has already attracted several awards (including best director for Cuarón at the <a href="https://www.goldenglobes.com/articles/all-winners-76th-golden-globes">Golden Globes</a>), but beating big British films The Favourite and Bohemian Rhapsody to the top prize is a considerable coup for the streaming service, a relative newcomer to the world of movie awards.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/roma-mexican-film-industry-blooms-with-oscar-nominations-a-century-after-its-origins-in-the-chihuahua-desert-110207">Roma’s</a> success cements <a href="https://theconversation.com/netflix-strikes-another-blow-against-the-old-school-film-industry-but-cinema-is-not-dead-yet-108447">Netflix’s</a> position as a place for original and high quality movies. It’s an unusual winner in several ways: a foreign language film shot in black and white and featuring <a href="https://theconversation.com/oscars-2019-roma-yalitza-aparicio-and-the-fascinating-history-of-non-professional-actors-111005">largely unknown actors</a>. Such films are often well-received but rarely pick up the biggest gongs. </p>
<p>Roma’s win means that the Oscar race for best picture is well and truly open. The Golden Globes awarded the big prizes to Bohemian Rhapsody, for best drama, and Green Book for best musical or comedy, and the <a href="http://sagawards.org/nominees/nominees-and-recipients/25th-annual-screen-actors-guild-awards">Screen Actors Guild</a> (SAG) gave Black Panther a nod for best ensemble cast. But I wouldn’t rule The Favourite out of contention yet, either. </p>
<h2>The players</h2>
<p>Best actress awards have been a two-horse race this year between Olivia Colman (in The Favourite) and Glenn Close (in The Wife). They each bagged a Golden Globe, for example, due to those awards using different categories for drama and comedy/musical, while Close won the SAG Award. Now Colman has the BAFTA, too. It’s unsurprising that the British awards ceremony celebrated Colman – and it’s too close to call as to which will bring home the Oscar in a few weeks’ time. </p>
<p>Personally, I’m torn, because both genuinely deserve it – and it’s an exceptionally strong category this year (in any other year, Melissa McCarthy’s superlative turn in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/sep/10/can-you-ever-forgive-me-review-melissa-mccarthy">Can You Ever Forgive Me</a>? would have been a strong favourite as well). But my heart says it should be Close, not only for her <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-47193122/glenn-close-and-jonathan-pryce-on-their-film-the-wife">performance in The Wife</a> – she is heartbreakingly good – but because it’s crazy that an actor of her stature has yet to win an Academy Award.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258205/original/file-20190211-174894-1wmseqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258205/original/file-20190211-174894-1wmseqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258205/original/file-20190211-174894-1wmseqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258205/original/file-20190211-174894-1wmseqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258205/original/file-20190211-174894-1wmseqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258205/original/file-20190211-174894-1wmseqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258205/original/file-20190211-174894-1wmseqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Rachel Weisz won best supporting actress for The Favourite.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Nik Hallen</span></span>
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<p>Rami Malek took the best actor award for Bohemian Rhapsody – with the British film again taking precedence over <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/vice-review-crazily-good-christian-bale-turns-dick-cheney-every/">Christian Bale’s outstanding performance</a> as former US vice-president Dick Cheney in Vice. As with Colman and Close, Bale and Malek have been in a close race for awards, with both picking up Golden Globes. But Malek’s triumph both at the BAFTAs and at the SAG awards must make his Oscar chances stronger.</p>
<p>Mahershala Ali – who is proving an astonishingly versatile performer – picked up another best supporting actor trophy for Green Book, while Rachel Weisz took the best supporting actress award for The Favourite. These wins highlight some of the issues with defining the difference between “lead” and “supporting”. Green Book is largely a two-hander between Ali and Viggo Mortensen, while Weisz, Colman and Emma Stone are equal leads in The Favourite. Colman herself pointed this out in her acceptance speech. </p>
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<h2>Talking points</h2>
<p>The biggest misses of the night were the presenters’ scripts. Unfunny joke after unfunny joke were greeted with awkward silences and gritted teeth. When even talented comedic performers such as Melissa McCarthy, Riz Ahmed and host Joanna Lumley can’t raise a smile, there’s something seriously wrong. Jettisoning jokes altogether would have been far less embarrassing than “gags” that were barely coherent, never mind amusing.</p>
<p>Last year’s awards season was all about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-oscars-inclusivity-riders-are-a-start-but-change-needs-to-come-from-the-ground-up-92946">big political statement</a>, with the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements and big speeches from the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Frances McDormand. This year, there have been fewer grand gestures –nunless we count Rising Star winner Letitia Wright’s somewhat cringeworthy speech about God, which might have worked across the Atlantic, but in the British context just felt awkward. </p>
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<h2>Variety show</h2>
<p>But let’s not forget that the darlings of this awards season have included a film about a woman whose husband has kept her in the shadows taking back control (The Wife), a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-favourite-at-last-were-seeing-lesbianism-take-centre-stage-in-popular-culture-110045">female-centred power battle featuring lesbianism</a> and political satire (The Favourite) and a Spike Lee film about a black man infiltrating the KKK (BlackKKlansman, which won best adapted screenplay). </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258220/original/file-20190211-174890-3va33c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258220/original/file-20190211-174890-3va33c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258220/original/file-20190211-174890-3va33c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258220/original/file-20190211-174890-3va33c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258220/original/file-20190211-174890-3va33c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258220/original/file-20190211-174890-3va33c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258220/original/file-20190211-174890-3va33c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mahershala Ali won best supporting actor for his role in Green Book.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Nik Hallen</span></span>
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<p>We also had a critique of the political elite (Vice), a celebration of a queer idol (Bohemian Rhapsody), a multiracial buddy story featuring a gay black musician encountering racial hatred in the Deep South (Green Book), and two triumphantly diverse super hero flicks (Black Panther and best animation winner Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse). Not to mention Cuarón’s story of a Mexican housekeeper, set against a time of political upheaval, with clear messages about nation, gender and class (Roma). </p>
<p>It remains to be seen which films the Oscars will recognise – and what those choices might say about the Trump era. Awards for stories celebrating women, and the black and LGBTQ+ communities would send a message about the need for these voices to be heard (although there is still <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/awards/women-directors-shutout-2019-oscars-female-nominees-1203113429/">some way to go</a>), but as plans for the president’s beloved wall project are under intense scrutiny, I wouldn’t bet against another triumph for the Mexican film.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111395/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Deller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
No big political statements this year but plenty of strong roles for women as two films emerge as firm favourites for Oscar Best Picture honours.
Ruth Deller, Reader and Principal Lecturer in Media and Communication, Sheffield Hallam University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.