Arts and Entertainment

Oscar nominees are here

Ethan Gill, Assistant Arts and Culture Editor|February 20, 2019

Who will take home the golden man? Find out Feb. 24. Image courtesy of ABC/Adam Rose. Used under Creative Commons license.

Five Interesting Oscar Firsts

With the past few years bringing in many Oscar firsts, it may be worth looking into other noteworthy Oscar firsts.

The first Best Picture winner was “Wings” back in 1929. The film was a love story in World War I between an ambulance driver and the combat pilot she has unrequited feelings for. Another interesting fact is that Clara Bow, who plays said ambulance driver, got top billing for the movie.
Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award for her role as Mammy in “Gone With the Wind.” However, at the ceremony where she received the award, she was forced to sit at a segregated table for two, accompanied only by her agent, William Meiklejohn.
Sidney Poitier was the first African-American actor to win the Best Actor award (which he also won at the Golden Globes) for his role as Homer Smith in “Lillies of the Field.” When he accepted the award and was kissed on the cheek by Anne Bancroft, they actually got death threats for that kiss.
The first person to ever turn down an Academy Award was George C. Scott for “Patton” in 1970, where he called the Oscars a “two-hour meat-parade.” Two years later, Marlon Brando would turn down the award for his role as Vito Corleone in “The Godfather.” In his place, he sent Sacheen Littlefeather, an Native American activist and actress who gave a speech about the poor portrayal of Native Americans in film and the standoff at Wounded Knee.
The first woman to be nominated for Best Director was Lina Wertmüller for “Seven Beauties.” However, the first winner, wouldn’t come until 2009, when Kathryn Bigalow won for “The Hurt Locker.” However, many people have critiqued her victory as being a ratings ploy, given that she was the ex-wife to fellow nominee that year, James Cameron.

On Jan. 22, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 2019 Oscars ceremony. Among these nominees were some first time nominees like Spike Lee, who received his first Best Director nomination in his career for “BlacKkKlasman” which is also nominated for Best Picture. Netflix received its first nomination for Best Picture in Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” and “Black Panther” became the first superhero film to receive a Best Picture nomination.

“Roma” received in total 10 nominations, tied with “The Favourite” for the most nominations this year. They are both nominated for Best Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress (“The Favourite” has two nominations in this category), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, and Production Design.

“Roma” wraps up its nominations with Best Foreign Language Film, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing.

“The Favourite” wraps up its remaining nominations with Film Editing and Costume Design.

Among other Best Picture nominees are political comedy “Vice,” starring Christian Bale as former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, and “Green Book,” a historical drama about a bodyguard played by Viggo Mortenson who takes a black pianist played by Mahershala Ali through the 1960s South. The actors are nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor respectively. “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “A Star is Born” round out the Best Picture category.

The Best Actor and Actress categories are both filled up with performances from Best Picture nominees like Rami Malek for “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Yalitza Aparicio for “Roma,” Lady Gaga for “A Star is Born,” Christian Bale for “Vice” and Olivia Colman for “The Favourite.”

Supporting Actor and Actress are also chock-full of performances from Best Picture nominees. Two nominations for “The Favourite” in Supporting Actress, yet another nomination for both Amy Adams and Sam Rockwell for their work in “Vice”. Regina King also has a nomination for “If Beale Street Could Talk”.

“If Beale Street Could Talk” also received nominations for Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay.

However, many people questioned the lack of nomination for Barry Jenkins, who directed the movie, as well as writing the screenplay. Jenkins, who was nominated in 2017 for directing “Moonlight” (which won Best Picture that year.) did not win Best Director that night. Many find his lack of recognition this year very disappointing to say the least.

However, it isn’t just the snubbing of Jenkins that has people upset. Outside of gender-specific categories, there are no female Best Director nominees or Asian nominees.

Many people have said that “Crazy Rich Asians” should have received a Best Picture nod, as well as a few acting nominations for Constance Wu and Michele Yeoh.

Many also questioned why Michael B. Jordan wasn’t nominated for Best Supporting Actor in “Black Panther” or why “Black Panther” was only nominated for awards like Best Production Design, Sound Editing or Original Score.

At the end of the day, while the Oscars gave out many firsts this year, the choices made by the Academy still leave a lot to be desired by many.

The show will be air on Sunday, Feb. 24.