VERDE’S OSCARS RE-IMAGINING THE RENOWNED AWARDS SHOW Text by MICHELLE KIM and JASMINE VENET
A
S THE LAST OF THE VIBRANT SUITS and extravagant dresses make their way down the red carpet, tens of millions of Americans grab their snacks and make themselves comfortable as their favorite actors and directors take their own seats at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California. On Feb. 9, millions of fans rooted for their favorite movies at the 92nd Academy Awards; however, behind the fanfare of the Oscars award show lies a thick layer of controversy and criticism. In recent years, Oscar nominees and winners have lacked racial and gender diversity, leading to boycotts of the award show itself. Though the Academy has launched campaigns in an attempt to recruit more women and people of color, this year’s award show seems to have taken a step back from these progressive reforms.
“Once again, there are no females on the Best Directors nominations, and I think that's a tragedy,” Palo Alto High School Film Composition teacher Alanna Williamson said. Throughout the history of the Oscars, there have been five female directorial nominees and only one winner: Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker.” On a similar note, only one black actor — Cynthia Erivo from “Harriet” — received an acting nomination this year. With the Oscars’ infamous history of excluding deserving contenders for its awards, do their choices truly represent the best that the film industry has to offer? Verde Magazine has compiled a list below of nominees who truly deserve the win in some spotlight categories. (Please note: these predictions were made before the Oscars and may or may not overlap with the actual winners.) v
BEST PICTURE: PARASITE
B
ong Joon-Ho’s breakthrough film “Parasite,” the first South Korean movie nominated for Best Picture and Best International Film, packs a gripping story of social class, deception and greed into a relatively short two hours of screen time. “Parasite” presents a unique narrative of poor residents in a South Korean ban-jiha, or “half-underground apartment,” and how their lives clash with wealthy homeowners encased in a bubble of comfort. As a thriller with a sharp sense of social awareness “Parasite” is set apart from other Best Picture nominees. Even as a horror film, its deliberate use of violence and rapidly developing plot drives the story forward. Narrating the film from a poor student’s perspective makes the story all the more emotional when the Kim family successfully, if not entirely honestly, earns the perfect life they worked so hard to achieve and immediately watches it crash down around them. The title succinctly captures the essence of the film. The Kim family are parasitic in that they leech off of the resources of the
44 FEBRUARY 2020
wealthy Park family, and, in turn, the Parks become parasites in the lives of the desperate poor, using them as pawns for domestic labor. Without spoiling the rest of the story, another family living even deeper underground than the Kims symbolize a third type of parasite; one destroying the precarious symbiotic relationship built between the Kim and Park family while further illustrating Director Bong Joon-Ho’s cinematic genius. Unfortunately, its widespread popularity and six Oscar nominations may actually undermine the chances of “Parasite” winning Best Picture; in recent years, top films won four to six Oscars compared to those of years past that swept with over 10 awards. The drama-turned-mystery film is almost guaranteed to win Best International Film, but earning the title of Best Picture seems farfetched to many due to the Oscars’ history of awarding films with a predominantly white cast and directors. Hopefully, members of the Academy will see past tradition and break precedent to select “Parasite” as the first-ever foreign film to win Best Picture.
