Every year at the Academy Awards, there are a few types of films that are bound to be nominated: the blockbusters that dominated the box office, the arthouse hopefuls and the little indies that could.
The 96th Academy Award nominations were announced on Jan. 23 and have made a splash by leaving out one of the record-breaking female directors of 2023: Greta Gerwig. Many have been expressing their opinions about how Gerwig was not nominated for the “Best Director” category, despite how much of a hit her movie “Barbie” was. This anger was continued for Margot Robbie, who played Barbie in the film, and was not nominated for “Best Leading Actress.” Her co-stars Ryan Gosling, who played Ken, and America Ferrera, who played Gloria, were nominated for their respective categories.
For over a century, horror films have lured audiences to cinemas all around the world. Their purpose is not only to terrify or disturb but also to engage with dark, challenging and taboo themes that you usually would not see in any other genre of films.
The Academy did not fail to deliver both serious snubs and pleasant surprises this year. The 94th Oscar nominations were announced by Tracee Ellis Ross and Leslie Jordan on Tuesday, Feb. 8, at 8:18 a.m. EST. The hosts engaged in light banter while getting help from New York firefighters, Howard University students and healthcare workers to announce the nominations.
Award show history was made multiple times last weekend at the 93rd annual Oscar’s ceremony on Sunday, April 25. The first milestone was made by the actual program itself, as viewership decreased to 9.85 million people, a 59% drop from last year. It was the smallest audience in Oscar’s history.
The nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards were officially announced on Wednesday, March 10 and this year’s diverse group of nominees marked several milestones. Netflix’s “Mank” rallied an impressive ten nominations in a challenging year for the film industry. In addition to “Mank,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “Sound of Metal,”“Nomadland,” “Minari,” “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “The Father” were all nominated for best picture. This year marked the first time in the academy’s history that two females were nominated for best director, with Chloe Zhao of “Nomadland” being the first woman of color to be nominated.
Chloe Zhao just became the first female Asian director to win a Golden Globe for her film “Nomadland,” and for good reason. It has a unique pace, beautiful scenery throughout and a great plot, one that moves forward with subtlety. At the end of the film, audiences and characters alike come full circle.
As part of their initiative to promote diversity, the academy released their newest standards for representation and inclusion on Tuesday, Sept. 8. With these new requirements come four standards that films must meet in order to be considered eligible for the Best Picture category at the 96th Academy Awards.
Earlier this month, the 2020 Academy Awards took place at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, where the black comedy thriller “Parasite” made history as the first non-English film to bag a Best Picture win.
Live from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, the 92nd Academy Awards kicked off their festivities the evening of Sunday, Feb. 9. After last year’s controversy surrounding Kevin Hart’s homophobic past, ABC confirmed in January that the broadcast would again go without a host. The 2019 ceremony was, in fact, the first to not have a host since 1989.
