The Sunday Mail
Tinashe Kusema The Big & Small Screen
HOURS before writing this week’s column, I decided to sit down and discuss the Academy Awards aka Oscars with a colleague.
I have decided to leave out his identity, because he does not want too many people to know that he is a big fan of mine who follows this column religiously.
With his cigarette in hand, and a soft drink in mine; we ran through some of the pressing issues of the day for tomorrow’s 89th edition of the Academy Awards.
Among some of those was the #Oscarssowhite movement from two years ago, this year’s front runners and some of the solutions that might help save this ailing award show.
Our consensus was that no one can save this facade of a show as the problem lies more with an institutional failure than anything else.
Case in point, in as much as it would be unfair to apportion blame of all the black lives that were lost during the eight-year reign of Barrack Obama as president of the United States of America, we should also cut Academy of Motion Picture Arts president Cheryl Boone Isaacs some slack.
Here is a presumably proud African-American woman thrust into a position in which she has to adhere to the traditions, no matter how archaic, of the current establishment and the wild expectations of every marginalised race in that country and by association, the whole world.
While not a fact per se, the people she serves with, namely the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, on top of being mostly a “boys club”, constitutes of mostly white privileged old people whose first gift in life was probably a “slave”.
Did you know that of the nearly 6 000 members of the club, roughly 94 percent are white; of which 77 percent are male, with an average age of 62? Also, the academy is still housed at some 1970s building, somewhere in Los Angeles, and rather than just call it what it really is — old, the word often used to describe the complex is “traditional”.
With all that in mind, as my workmate rightfully and somewhat surprisingly noted, rather than boycotting the show or starting another awards show like the BET Awards; a change of mindset would be a good starting point.
My solution was simpler — “relax, it’s just an award”.
Much like my advice to those that did not walk away with anything during last weekend’s National Arts Merit Awards (Nama), I believe “it is simply ludicrous to define a year’s work, sweat and effort with a golden statute, let alone one from an organisation without a clear and transparent framework of selection, discussion and evaluation”.
How does one find the balance between quantity and quality?
Meryl Streep has the record for the most Oscar wins and nominations, standing at three and 16, but it no way makes her a better actress than Betty White.
I am willing to bet, on everything I hold dear, that you are likely to meet fewer people, in this great country of ours, who know Streep than those who know Rose from the “Golden Girls”. In my eyes, Helen Mirren is the true Iron lady of acting, not Meryl Streep.
Do not even get me started on the fact that Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington have a collective tally of three Oscar wins and 11 nominations. Given the years of service, immense talent and the number of films they have collectively made; it is a travesty that these guys have got only three collective Oscar wins.
It looks like I have waffled a lot, but with all that background, it is extremely difficult to get excited about tomorrow’s 89th edition of the Academy Awards. The show, which will be host by late night star Jimmy Kimmel, will be aired during the wee hours of tomorrow morning.
In keeping with the theme of the last two editions, there appears as if the biggest question on every neutral observer’s mouth will be on just how much effect the racial debacle will have on tomorrow’s show.
From recent trends, it does not look good. The 2015 show was a flop and things only got worse during 88th edition as not only were the acting nominees all white again, like the 2015 edition, but “Straight Outta Compton” was noticed only for the work of its white screenwriters.
Another 2016 surprise entry, “Creed”, which had a black director and star, received a single nomination — for Sylvester Stallone of all people. Leading the racial fight during this year’s edition are the duo of “Fences” and “Hidden Figures”, the two films most people seem to confuse.
“Fences”, which stars the duo of Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, is a drama based on a play by a similar name.
It chronicles a father’s journey of discovery as he tries to navigate life, race and daily struggles in the early 1970s.
Viola Davis, who stars as Denzel Washington’s wife in the film, is favourite to get “Best Supporting Actress”, this despite the uproar of her being a lead vying for a supporting actress gong.
There is very little to write about the Oscar chances of the Bio-pic “Hidden Figures”. The film chronicles the life and works of mathematician Katherine Goble, whose work was instrumental in the Space race. It will take a miracle for this film to beat out the hugely marketed and grossly overrated “La La Land”, which is outright favourite to cause a storm at this year’s Oscars.
For the full list of Oscar nominees go to www.sundaymail.co.zw
