in the last five years they've imposed quotas for women and 'people of color', but given that they only let in 2 or three dozen each year I don't think the overall makeup of the Academy being old white male industry types has changed. They kicked out Cosby, but they also kicked out Wienstein so balance was maintained.
But I think being a mostly liberal group the #oscarssowhite might have stung a bit, because it was valid. so when face with choosing say, between Blanchetts tour de force in Tar and Yeoh good performance, I reckon there might have something in the back of their mind thinking "we'll get a lot of good headlines if we opt for yeoh, and maybe people will stop calling us a bunch of racist cunts". not in a conspiracy way, just human nature and people not wanting to be seen as the bad guy in a low stakes choice
And that's how it panned out. The headline in my paper today was "First South-East Asian Actor to win best Actor". Not "yeoh wins award". Maybe I'm cynical. Any artistic award is going to be debatable and subjective, and theres been worse choices.
(, Mon 13 Mar 2023, 23:17, Reply)
She's always felt a bit wooden and monotone to me, which is probably a bit of an unfair criticism considering that English isn't her native tongue and she's not nearly as hard work as Hiam Abbass in that regard.
I've been meaning to watch EEAAO for bloody ages, but allocating 140 minutes to sit down and watch a film is proving difficult currently. So I'll reserve judgement until then, but I'd be very surprised if her performance is superior to Andrea Riseborough's.
(, Tue 14 Mar 2023, 12:36, Reply)