Diversity is slowly making its way into the film mecca, based on talent, effort and struggle. Also in prizes.
The mecca of cinema and its industry has historically been a place dominated by white men. But, little by little, based on effort, talent, struggle and also due to denunciation and social mobilization, little by little it opens up to diversity. There is still a long way to go, but today there are more references than yesterday with which to identify and the hope that there will be more and more.
Nominations from the Director’s Guild of America (DGA) included two women nominated for outstanding achievement as director and three black candidates among candidates for the novice director.
The list of nominations for the most famous film awards, which will be given two weeks after the DGA, was recently launched. “The Oscars nominate the most diverse list of actors in history, including the first Asian-American actor,” Variety headlined.
Among the nominees who will win the best directorial statuette for the Oscars, such as the DGA, are two women, Emerald Fennell, for “A Promising Young Woman” and Chloé Zhao, for “Nomadland”.
Zhao, a Chinese-American, recently won the Golden Globe for Best Director and became the first Asian to win the award.
The film tells the story of a woman who, after losing everything in a crisis, decides to go on a journey and live like a modern nomad.
“For me, Nomadland is a pilgrimage through pain and healing,” he said at the award ceremony, which he noted was for all those “who have gone through this difficult and beautiful journey at some point in their lives.” Zhao is also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Picture.
9 PEOPLE OF COLOR, BETWEEN ACTRESSES AND ACTORS, NOMINATED.
Fennell and Zhao share a nomination with Lee Isaac Chung, the American director whose latest work, “Minari,” inspired by childhood memories, won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.
“Minari is about a family. It is a family trying to learn to speak their own language. It is deeper than any American language and any foreign language. It’s a language of the heart, “he said after receiving the award. The list is completed by David Fincher for” Mank “and Thomas Vinterberg, a Danish director, for” Druk “.
In this edition, nine actors and actresses of color were nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in various categories. In the female categories, white actresses continue to be the majority of the nominees.
Best Leading Actress, black actresses Viola Davis for “Ma Rainey’s Black Ass” and Andra Day for “United States vs. Billy Holiday “, shares the candidacy with White, Vanessa Kirby, for” Women’s Pieces “; Frances McDormand for “Nomadland” and Carey Mullingan for “A Promising Young Woman.” For Best Supporting Actress, Yuh-Jung Young is the first Korean performer nominated in this category.
In the male categories, however, the trend was reversed. Nominations for Best Leading Actor include Pakistani-born Riz Ahmed for “The Sound of Metal”; Steven Yeun, the first Asian American nominated for “Minari”; and Chadwick Boseman, an African-American actor who died in 2020, for “Ma Rainey’s Black Ass.” Anthony Hopkins, for “Father” and Gary Oldman, “for Mank,” close the list, which for the first time in history is not overwhelmingly white.
A reality that is also transferred to the nominations for best supporting actor. Leslie Odom Jr. competes in this category for “One night in Miami”; Lakeith Standfield and Daniel Kaluuya, for “Judas and the Black Messiah”; Sacha Baron Cohen for “The trial of the Chicago 7” and Paul Raci for “Sound of Metal” close the cast.
“It’s another opportunity to open your mouth and tell a really fundamental truth about Hollywood, this business and, indeed, America,” Davis told Variety.
“If returning to the Oscars for the fourth time makes me the most nominated black actress in history, this is a testament to the great lack of material that existed for artists of color,” he added.