You Can Solve The Oscar Diversity Problem By Seeing These Great Films Yourself

Hollywood’s award season is upon us this year and… look, it’s not looking great for those expecting greater diversity for the 2020 Oscars.

After sitting through a Golden Globes ceremony that featured a terrible host, a lot of white men, and just enough of a dash of representation so the diversity problem is quelled (but not completely quashed) somewhat, the BAFTAs – arguably the more important award show as it’s considered a strong predictor of who will get nominated for an Oscar – somehow managed to take a step further backwards than anyone expected.

Of the 18 people nominated across the four acting categories, every single one of them are white. Hell, rather than give a nomination to a person of colour, the BAFTAs opted to give both Scarlett Johansson and Margot Robbie two nominations each. And then there’s the slew of talented female filmmakers who were completely shut out of the technical and directing categories.

What the f**k?

This clearly doesn’t bode well for the Oscars but rather than get pissed off at the Academy for the lack of diversity (again), let’s just cut out the (white) middle man and spend the time we would’ve spent on the ceremony watching some of the films that will inevitably get snubbed instead.

Parasite

Arguably the most buzzed about (and my favourite) film from 2019, Parasite has scored a heap of attention for its nomination in the Best Film, Director, and Screenplay categories. And while that’s great for Parasite and international films, the cast – all of whom were brilliant – were completely snubbed by the BAFTAs.

While director/writer Bong Joon-Ho and the film itself will deservedly reap in the accolades, the cast also deserve some of the spotlight and their performances are more than enough reason to watch Parasite.

The Farewell

Despite Awkwafina winning a Golden Globe for her performance in The Farewell, she was inexplicably snubbed by the BAFTAs. Even more infuriating is the lack of recognition for director/writer Lulu Wang and Zhao Shuzhen, who put in a star-making performance in The Farewell as Awkwafina’s grandmother.

The Farewell will most likely have to make do with nothing more than a Best International Feature Film nomination at the Oscars, which is a shame because it is one of the most emotionally moving films of 2019.

Dolemite Is My Name

Love or hate him, Eddie Murphy turned heads with a headline grabbing performance in Dolemite Is My Name. Despite landing a Best Actor nomination at the Golden Globes – and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination in 2007 – he got absolutely nothing at the BAFTAs.

Guess we should expect Eddie to not rock up to the 2020 Oscars at all then since Dolemite Is My Name will likely receive no awards attention.

Hustlers

Hustlers was surprisingly great and starred diverse cast of women led by Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu, yet the film only scored a Best Supporting Actress nomination for J-Lo at the Golden Globes. Things got even worse at the BAFTAs as Hustlers was shut out completely, meaning we shouldn’t expect anything at the Oscars.

Maybe the cast can stage a Hustler-esque scheme at the Oscars as retribution or something.

Us

After so much love for Jordan Peele’s Get Out, his equally-brilliant Us has barely received a cursory glance by the awards shows. After getting snubbed by the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs followed suit and gave Us no love.

That’s an absolute shame as Lupita Nyong’o was tremendous in the film, yet it seems like even she – a previous Oscar winner – couldn’t give Us the awards buzz it deserves.

Little Women

This is a little bit of a cheat as the film is filled with white people, Saoirse Ronan and Florence Pugh scored acting nominations at the BAFTAs, director/writer Greta Gerwig got an Adapted Screenplay nomination.

But I’m making an exception as Little Women was utterly brilliant – especially since I haven’t read the book or watched any of the previous adaptations – and it’s an absolute shame that Greta and the film didn’t get a Best Director and Best Film nom respectively.

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