Even though South Korean film Parasite made history during the 2020 Oscars’ ceremony with a historic four wins, there still was a big issue of Oscars diversity that needed addressing. Parasite took home the biggest award of the night, coming away with “Best Picture.”
This made it the first foreign language film in history to take home the biggest Oscar of the night. Although director, Bong Joon Ho made major waves in history, there was still a lack of women and people of color featured in the categories for the night.
#OscarsSoWhite makes a return
Two years ago we saw the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag make its way into the Twitter-sphere as a direct response to the intense lack of Oscar diversity that we saw in the 2018 Academy Awards ceremony. However, the 2019 ceremony made up for the previous year’s blunder by being one of the most diverse film enthusiasts have seen in years. Rami Malek took Best Supporting Actor, Regina King took Best Supporting Actress, and Mahershala Ali took Best Supporting Actor.
Presented without comment:
In 2017: 18 Black nominees
In 2018: 13 Black nominees
In 2019: 15 Black nominees
In 2020: 5 Black noms #OscarsSoWhite #Oscars— Rashad Robinson (@rashadrobinson) February 10, 2020
Natalie Portman gets political with gender snubs
Where 2019 made strides into the non-existent Oscars diversity, 2020 lacked diversity in both gender and race. The Best Director category only had men eligible for the prestigious award, which did not go unnoticed by the Internet and actresses alike. In addition to the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag, we saw the introduction of the #OscarsSoMale trending hashtag because the gender snubs.
Most notably of the night, actress Natalie Portman made a political fashion choice by donning a custom Dior cape with embroidered names of the women who were noticeably left out of the Best Director category. Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), and Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers).
WOW #NataliePortman is looking regal on the carpet. Did you know? Her cape is embroidered with the names of female directors that were not nominated. #Oscars (photo: Getty Images) pic.twitter.com/XdwpFmr9fd
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) February 10, 2020
Cynthia Ervio only nominee of color
With the aforementioned lack of gender Oscars diversity aside, there were still a major lack of color amongst the nominees at the Oscars’ ceremony. Out of 20 categories, there was only one nominee of color who was Cynthia Ervio as her portrayal of Harriet Tubman in the movie Harriet. Although she had a great performance, the only nominee of color being a portrayal of a slave plays into the trope that the Academy Awards only nominates movies that portray slavery.
In addition, Ervio did not even come away with the honor, making it even more of a failure in diversity for this year’s ceremony. Although Janelle Monae had an amazing opening performance, the Oscars’ still need to improve in future years to reflect the rich diverse art that peppers this world.
Also read: “Parasite” Makes History at the Oscars