Every Oscars 2023 Snub, Every One, All At Once
You can’t please everybody, especially when you’re the discerning authority on cinema, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Every year, we conclude Hollywood’s most glamorous night with a bellyful of controversy. In 2022 it was ‘The Slap’, the year before, it was the late Chadwick Boseman’s snub for Best Actor, and everyone remembers Envelopegate.
In fact, the agenda of the night in order of importance goes: the carpet fashion first, the controversy next, and the ceremony last. It almost feels like a script. Sometimes, it’s a combination of either two (re: the slap happening on live TV during the ceremony).
A study by Syracuse University revealed that Oscars viewership was heavily influenced by diversity, and Gen Z specifically are more likely to watch the awards if there are more diverse nominees, i.e people of colour, and women. Viewership amongst our generation has also reduced, and is likely to decline because of the general decrease in TV viewership in favour of streaming content. Beyond that, we love a viral moment, with some of us most likely to hear about the Oscars through these controversial moments.
Either way, we’re guaranteed hella eye candy, hella entertainment, and hella snubs every night of the annual Academy Awards.
Prompted by the Twitter account Film Updates, the internet aired their losses and grievances about the recent week’s Academy Awards snubs:
‘Banshees of Inisherin’ came away with 0/9 wins. Although this was predicted a couple of weeks prior, it was still disappointing for the critically acclaimed darling.
‘Elvis’, the biopic starring Austin Butler, also saw 0/8 wins.
‘Babylon’ missed out on the Best Original Score.
Where was Jordan Peele's ‘Nope’? That marks a second shutout since ‘Get Out’s win for the writer and director. If Martin Scorscese is any example, a shut out at the Academy Awards does not make even a dent in legacy, but the implications may be different for POC.
Angela Bassett lost out on Best Supporting Actress for her landmark role in ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’, to Jamie Lee Curtis, who also beat her ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ co-star Stephanie Hsu to the gold—perhaps the most controversial, but not without argument.
The insatiable appetite of the cinema-enthusiastic Twitteratti is on full display following this year’s Academy Awards. It’s reminiscent of the way people expressed dissent after Harry Styles beat Beyonce to win the most coveted GRAMMY—Album of the Year.
There was not enough space on the movie’s official poster for us to add all the Oscar trophies it won 🥲
‘Everything, Everywhere, All At Once’, EEAAO, made a grand sweep of ten awards against blockbusters like ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ as well as critic favourites ‘Tar’ and ‘Banshees of Inisherin’. For her role in the movie, Michelle Yeoh made history as the first Asian woman to bag the Academy Award for Best Actress award.
Yet, the elephant in the Dolby Theatre remains, why Jamie Lee Curtis? While the argument may hold that the Supporting Actress award would obviously have been bagged by EEAAO given their dominance across the awards season—and the Marvel franchise’s infamous disfavour with the Oscars which logically ruled out Angela Bassett—the issue is within the EEAAO multiverse.
In all, or most, possible outcomes the likely winner for Best Supporting Actress was Hsu, not because Curtis was undeserving—she is long due an Oscar, for my personal pick; ‘Freaky Friday’. But because of the grander scheme within the film’s universe, and the story’s real life cultural impact.
The film has been called “an exuberant swirl of genre anarchy” by the New York Times. The film defies convention in more ways than cinematography, it is a love letter to Asian immigrant representation.
The Academy is slowly taking notice of Fantasy genres—excluding horror, which is still murky water, and maybe the reason for NOPE’s snub. ‘Black Panther’ bringing home Marvel’s first Oscar and EEAAO’s emphatic triumph at the ceremony are small proof of this fact.
Hsu played a more significant role than Curtis in EEAAO, in both character and impact—Hsu played Joy/Jobu who asks existential questions, and faces mental health issues (with a bagel), while Curtis plays a comedic tax inspector. Considering the glaring difference in the contribution of both roles to the movie, the internet’s reactions to why Curtis won over Hsu are warranted and, frankly, valid.
The night and the event is able to keep Gen Z’s interest because of the red (champagne this year) carpet fashion; we love a moment to play Joan Rivers and police the clothing choices. One choice could add to the controversy culture of the Oscars that not even the excitable producer, who loves the mishaps, could plan—that Jamie Lee Curtis would wear Dolce and Gabbana. Years ago, the Italian house was caught in the eye of cancel culture and reprimanded for their apparently racist marketing. The brand has a history of Anti-asian positioning and Chinese consumers were particularly irked. The house has proven so uncancellable, not even a freak-of-nature hailstorm could stop them. Not even here, could Curtis assume allyship.
In 2020, the Oscars established an inclusivity standard in response to the #Oscarssowhite campaign of 2015. In 2022, only four Black Actors were nominated for an Oscar, including veterans Denzel Washington and Will Smith. People of colour have won only 22 acting awards before this year's awards. At the 93rd Academy Awards, organisers made a radical change to the award order, replacing the Best Picture category with the Best Actor category. Many believed this would honour Chadwick Boseman for his role in ‘Black Panther’ posthumously. He lost out to the absent Anthony Hopkins. An unexplained twist that seemed to cut the ceremony short. To date, Angela Bassett has no Oscar wins and only two nominations. These only seem to prolong the disappointing history of the Oscars, and muddy future aspirations. What’s the point in daring arguably the most glamorous dream in cinema, if it gains no recognition? Disappointment has become the agonising norm, and expressing this set-back only antagonises us.
This year has set the record with the most Asian Oscar nominees in a single year, and Beyonce becoming the most awarded Grammy artist in history. Somehow, with the slow progress thus far, this only feels like a fluke.