The Oscar Acceptance Speeches You Wish You Heard
The 2020 Academy Awards looked a little too white and a little too male. Here’s what really should have gone down.
At an awards ceremony honoring the film industry’s liberal elite, one might think there would be an effort to include a heterogeneous mix of groundbreaking stories and performances that reflect the times in which we live — you know, stories about race, immigration, gentrification, or the post #MeToo movement. Instead, we got Janelle Monae as reparations for every person of color who should’ve been nominated, and a premature lights out for the entire cast of Parasite.
It feels as if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences visited the good ol’ boys’ club of America and watched this year’s screeners in a time machine set to the year 1991. The choice of year isn’t arbitrary — multiple 2020 nominees also received Oscar nods in 1991.
This year’s Oscars excluded people of color, women in non-gendered categories, and young artists who failed to get noticed in a sea of crusty celebrities starring in tedious replicas of their old films (have you seen The Irishman?). The Academy Awards are too white, too male, and too similar to Bush Senior’s America to possibly reflect the diverse array of exceptional movies made in 2019.
