Let's Hear it For the Oscars!

On Sunday (2/3/14) the 86th Academy Awards or "Oscars" were held in Los Angeles, California, US. This years ceremony honouring achievements in film was moved specifically to avoid clashing with the 2014 Winter Olympics that were held in Sochi, Russia. Mindful of the fact that with para-Olympics starting on Friday (7/3/14) we are only really in the half-time intermission of the Sochi games this years Oscars were a deliberately low key affair with political statements very much kept in the background.

As a result two of the big, widely tipped films "American Hustle" and "The Wolf of Wall Street" were completely snubbed failing to win any awards. At their hearts both American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street are stories about confidence or con-tricks and corruption. American Hustle is set amongst the world of American politics while The Wolf of Wall Street is set in the world of global capitalism. So by not giving either film any awards the Oscar judges were very clearly refusing to endorse corruption in either politics or banking.

The big winner of the night was "Gravity" which won 7 awards. Set in outer space Gravity doesn't really have any overt political message making it a very safe choice. However setting a film in space where there is no gravity presents a huge range of challenges for filmmakers working here on earth. As a result 6 of Gravity's awards came in the technical categories such as visual effects, sound mixing and sound editing. These reflected the technological advances that had to be invented in order to make the film and will no doubt now go on and be used in many more films. The Best Director award was handed Alfonso Cuaron for his efforts bringing all these complex elements together in the making of Gravity.

Another film that did well was "12 Years a Slave" which was awarded the prestigious Best Picture award. Although 12 Years a Slave is a strong film a large part of its success seems to come from the fact that it wasn't American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street which were being deliberately snubbed nor Gravity or "Dallas Buyers Club" which were both heavily awarded in other areas. That said 12 Years a Slave has actually been on a bit of a journey as its made its way through the international film awards season.

Obviously 12 Years a Slave should be commended for reminding everyone of the horrors of US/African slavery and its central story of a freed black man being kidnapped in the US' northern states in order to be sold into slavery in the southern states briefly touches on the rarely told story of the way legal slavery ended in the US and its effects on South America. However I don't think it really counts a news that legal slavery in the US was a bad thing and the way that 12 Years a Slave focuses very narrowly on the plight of black slaves in the US kind of gives the impression that Africans being shipped off to the US was the beginning, middle and end of the story of slavery. That of course completely ignores the several thousands of years of slavery that proceeded the discovery of the US and the plight of people who are still held in slavery as I write.

In fact the way that the British director Steve McQueen has been talking about slavery suggests to me that he is confused between the issues of slavery and racism. That confusion is quite common in the US and certainly complicates race relations in the country leading to quite an interesting talking point. Unfortunately this seems to have gone right over McQueen's head with him acknowledging modern day slavery in his acceptance speech which indicates that he'd finally started picking up on the heavy hints that have been dropped in his direction recently.

12 Years a Slave also brought Oscar success for Lupita Nyong'o who won Best Supporting Actress. Despite clearly benefiting from not being in American Hustle Nyong'o's debut performance is said to be very strong. Nyong'o also provides an interesting talking point because as always happens when a new success story emerges everyone fights to claim ownership of it with both the US and the UK staking large claims to Nyong'o's success. The fact that the Kenyan actress's success has come in a film about British people stealing African people in order to sell them to American people means that there has been a certain irony to all this.

In contrast to its rejection of the corruption and con-tricks of American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street the Oscars were keen to show their support for practical philanthropic work. This included a special award for Angelina Jolie who has spent the last year and more doing the tough job of actually arguing with senior members of the governments of many nations over the practical and technical aspects of complex issues such as refugees from the conflict in Syria to name just one. The Academy also heaped praise on Dallas Buyers Club which won three awards including Best Make-up and Hairstyling which was a direct snub to American Hustle.

Dallas Buyers Club tells the true story of Ron Woodruff who was diagnosed as HIV+ in 1985 at the height of the great panic about HIV/AIDS. Simply refusing to die Woodruff went on to set a buyer's club which allowed people with HIV access to the latest treatments. The fact that Woodruff had to smuggle these untested treatments into the US obviously put him on a collision course with the US' federal government. Although a few films have been made about the initial outbreak of HIV/AIDS in the early 1980's - which is undoubtedly an important period in global history - they tend to be quite miserable affairs that reflect the fear and the sense of helplessness of the time. Dallas Buyers Club instead focuses on people fighting back and taking practical steps to overcome adversity. Also through the course of the film Matthew McConaughey's Woodruff starts out being very homophobic but by being forced to spend time with Jared Leto's gay, transsexual Rayon overcomes that homophobia. With the current debate about gay-rights currently raging across the world and especially in the US this is exactly the sort of example the Oscars want to set. Finally McConaughey lost a lot of weight for the role which is the sort of dedication to the craft that the Oscars likes to reward.

Jared Leto also won Best Supporting Actor for his Reyon role. Obviously that reflects what - by all accounts - was a very strong performance and heaps further praise on the film. However the fact that Reyon is not only a homosexual but also a transsexual brings up the issue of transgenderism which is a scientifically complex and often overlooked niche of the debate about the rights of Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) people. Finally the fact that Leto is a beautiful, beautiful man who makes for a very convincing woman seems to highlight the way in which the lines of human sexuality can become a bit blurred. Personally I don't think that was a particularly useful contribution because if a straight man is attracted to someone who has made a great effort to make themselves look like a woman it just means that they are attracted to women.

The way in which the US gay community has attempted to address gay-rights - particularly in the run-up to the Sochi Olympics - was further put up for discussion by P!nk's musical tribute to the classic film "The Wizard of Oz." That film and it's star Judy Garland are of course massive gay icons but it is also very much a work of fantasy which is highlighted by the song "Over the Rainbow" which P!nk performed. As such the Academy seemed to be asking if US gay-rights activists got caught up in a sort of whirlwind of hysteria ahead of the Sochi games and in fact ended up doing more damage to gay rights in Russia?

In the always political documentary categories the rather safe "20 Feet From Stardom" won best feature as a little reference to all the people in the entertainment industry who work behind the scenes, just out of the spotlight. This of course meant that "The Square" the widely tipped Egyptian film about the Egyptian revolution lost. I think that reflects a feeling that with the passing of Egypt's deeply flawed constitution Egypt's revolution has now stalled and the nation is heading back to the dark days of Mubarak. However that is a complex issue that I will have deal with on its own. Best documentary short went to "Lady in No 6: Music Saved My Life" reflecting the fact that the Oscars still love films about the Nazi holocaust and the subject of the documentary Alice Herz Sommer actually died last Friday (23/2/14) rather highlighting the fact that the Nazi-holocaust is slipping away from being a part of living history.

Emphasising that while the Oscars were going for a low-key, non-political ceremony they still need to put on a show for the millions of people sitting at home, probably eating pizza, the host Ellen Degeneres made a spectacle of handing out take away pizza to the assembled guests. Degeneres also got a few of the assembled celebrities to pose of a "Selfie" which then went on to become the most re-Tweeted Tweet in the history of Twitter. This of course highlighted the way that famous people can be annoyed by fans trying to have their picture taken at the most inappropriate times. However it also highlighted the power of the Oscars and the way that people try and muscle in on that power.

There was plenty of evidence of that with Twitter being awash with people trying to push political campaigns on the Oscars audience. One of the main ones of these was a campaign highlighting the plight of Rohingya Muslims who are being terribly oppressed by the Buddhist majority Myanmar/Burma. Many people think that the international community should be refusing to do business with Myanmar out of protest at this but the US is particular is leading a charge to normalise relations with Myanmar in an effort to take manufacturing jobs away from China by offering lower wages. This is of course an important issue but it is one that everyone in government/business is already well aware of so I'm not sure what role celebrities have to play. It would have probably been a better idea to target a music award ceremony like The Grammys because pop-stars have lines of cheaply manufactured merchandise in a way that film people just don't.

The was also a campaign to get Venezuela and Ukraine mentioned by those attending the Oscars. I think I've covered and will continue to cover Ukraine in a lot of detail but the campaign to get Venezuela mentioned was particularly ironic. Due to chronic mis-management by Chavez Venezuela has a lot of trouble getting hold of US dollars which are needed for international trade. As a result a lot of imported goods, especially from the US are difficult to get hold off. The business owners who want Chavez's replacement Maduro out are exploiting this by further strangling the supply of dollars and hiking prices in an effort to provoke Venezuela's consumers to try and bring down the government. So the Venezuelans who were calling for protests while consuming the Oscars are in fact protesting against themselves. No wonder Jared Leto paid them a little slight in his acceptance speech by referencing the 2003 Bernardo Bertolucci film "The Dreamers."


17:30 on 3/3/14 (UK date).