The Shape of Water' wins best picture as Oscars project diversity
The 90th Academy
Awards ceremony skittered between the serious and the silly on Sunday
night, taking time both to acknowledge #MeToo and to hand out hot
dogs at an adjacent movie theatre, but the show ultimately emerged as
a powerful call for inclusion and diversity in Hollywood.
Guillermo del
Toro’s outcast parable, The Shape of Water, was honoured as best
picture, and del Toro won the best director Oscar. Jordan Peele
collected the best original screenplay award for Get Out, a movie
centered on racism in the liberal white suburbs. And Frances
McDormand, winning best actress for her portryal of a mother seeking
justice for her murdered daughter in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing,
Missouri, made a dramatic stand for gender equality in Hollywood.
She thanked
“every single person in this building” and her sister before
asking the female nominees in the room to stand. “Look around,”
she said. “We all have stories to tell and projects we need
financing.”
McDormand’s win
was expected, as was Gary Oldman’s (Darkest Hour) for best actor.
“If I fall
over, pick me up, because I’ve got some things to say,” McDormand
said.
McDormand
finished with, “I have two words to say: inclusion rider,” a
reference to a practice by which stars add a clause to film contracts
that insists on diversity on both sides of the camera.
Jodie Foster,
appearing on crutches and joking that the reason was run-in with
Meryl Streep, presented best actress with Jennifer Lawrence, in lieu
of last year’s best-actor winner, Casey Affleck. Affleck bypassed
the ceremony amid continued criticism for settling sexual harassment
suits in the past.
Comments
Post a Comment