The Oscars awards ceremony will take place March 2, and the nominations just came out Thursday. Although not every film that comes out in a year can be nominated, some of this year’s films deserved more recognition.
“Emilia Pérez” leads the Oscar nomination count with a total of 13 nominations. Directors and people in the film industry love it, seeing that along with its Oscar nominations, it earned four Golden Globes. There is room in the film world for directors to make movies about stories that aren’t their own; however, “Emilia Pérez” was made with little thought for the communities it tries to represent.
Although the film is based in Mexico, it was not filmed there at all. The film is directed by a Frenchman who did not study Mexican culture for the film. One major criticism of the film is it “glamorizes the violence that has long plagued the nation.” Along with the film portraying a borderline offensive Mexican story, it has been criticized for its transgender representation. GLAAD called the film a “profoundly retrograde portrayal of a trans woman” and “a step backward for trans representation.” Karla Sofia Gascón, however, will be making history as the first openly transgender woman to receive an Oscar nomination in an acting category.
Despite “Emilia Pérez” seeing both controversy and success, other LGBTQIA+ films have not had much success this award season. Notably, the films “I Saw the TV Glow” and “Queer” were left out of nominations. Both of these films are bold portrayals of queer storytelling and have been widely praised for the stories. Daniel Craig in “Queer” was predicted to get a Best Actor nomination for his role but was left without one despite his beautiful performance.
It isn’t surprising “I Saw the TV Glow” went without nominations, seeing that the academy has a history of hating horror films. Only seven horror movies have ever been nominated for Best Picture. The film also went without any major nominations from other award ceremonies this award season.
Another film was expected to get more nominations than it did was “Sing Sing.” Set in a prison, the film follows Divine G, played by Coleman Domingo, a man incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit. Divine “finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.” While the film did snag three Academy Award nominations, it was notably left out of Best Picture, and Clarence Maclin did not get a nomination for best supporting actor.
The biggest snub of them all is debatably the fact that the “Challengers” score did not get nominated for Best Original Score. This snub comes as a shock seeing it won the Golden Globe for best original score, beating out some of the nominees at the Oscars.
Every award season there are many well deserving films and actors get snubbed by the academy. Some more people who deserved to be nominated include Margaret Qualley for Best Supporting Actress in “The Substance” and Denis Villeneuve for Best Director with “Dune: Part Two.” These actors and directors did not get the recognition they deserve for their work in amazing movies this past year, but yet “Emilia Pérez” which has been highly criticized earned the second most nominations of all time.
Cassie is a junior studying communications at Ohio University. Please note the views expressed in this column do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk to Cassie? Email her at cb086021@ohio.edu.
