Have the Oscars Finally Figured Out This Whole Diversity Thing?

Over the last few years the Oscars have been disappointing, especially from a diversity perspective. But this year was different. The big question that we have to consider is a bit of a chicken and the egg type scenario. Was the Academy purposely excluding films made by or that included people of color, or was the industry excluding people of color from being part of their productions? If I’m being honest, I think the answer is both. Since #OscarsSoWhite, we have seen a surge of films made by or which include people of color. But in addition, we’ve also seen an increase in films being made by women, since the #MeToo movement started. Which goes to show, Twitter really has a lot of power when it comes to the media.

The show itself opened with a musical number which included Queen and Adam Lambert. This is key because the ceremony didn’t have a host. Don’t even get me started on that one! But maybe it worked out ok?

As I said, this years’ recipients and nominations included more female winners than ever before, and many first-ever triumphs by African Americans – especially in the costume and design categories. Last night we also saw the first-ever foreign language win, and a few awards were given out for Marvel superhero movies. I want to say what year are we living in because these are things that should have been happening at least 10 years ago, but here we are, celebrating these achievements now. Don’t get me wrong – these are incredible achievements. I will always make the argument that we are too far behind when it comes to diversity and inclusion. And last night’s Oscar’s have demonstrated that for me once again.

But I won’t dwell on what “should” have been. As you know, there was no host, so how did they handle the opening monologue? Producers teased a “what if?” scenario that included Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph as the first presenters. But they also offered up a mini-opening monologue. The “what if” scenario was “what if we had of hosted the Oscars”. It was, of course, fast-paced (because that is there style) and very silly. Many wondered why they didn’t host the Oscars in the first place?

Now, let’s get into the list of winners:

• Best Picture: Green Book
• Actress in a Supporting Role: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
• Actor in a Supporting Role: Mahershala Ali, Green Book
• Foreign Language Film: Roma
• Documentary (Short): Period. End Sentence.
• Documentary Feature: Free Solo
• Original Song: Shallow, A Star is Born
• Animated Feature Film: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
• Adapted Screenplay: BlacKkKlansman
• Original Screenplay: Green Book
• Actor in a Leading Role: Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
• Actress in a Leading Role: Olivia Colman, The Favorite
• Director: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
• Production Design: Black Panther
• Cinematography: Roma
• Costume Design: Black Panther
• Sound Editing: Bohemian Rhapsody
• Sound Mixing: Bohemian Rhapsody
• Animated Short Film: Bao
• Live Action Short Film: Skin
• Original Score: Black Panther
• Visual Effects: First Man
• Film Editing: Bohemian Rhapsody
• Makeup and Hairstyling: Vice

Now this isn’t a list of wildly diverse winners, but given what we saw a few years ago this is a huge improvement. Spike Lee’s film didn’t win Best Picture, and while it was incredible, I kind of thought Green Book was better. Sorry, Spike. Maybe next year?