Bong Joon Ho (pictured above, far left) directed Parasite, the first Korean film to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, according to ABC. This award ceremony consistently overlooks Asian and female talent in cinema, which results in the minimizing of diversity in the industry (Park jeah wan/wikimedia).
Oscar nominations were released on Jan. 13, inviting film fanatics across the globe to scoff and turn their nose up while retreating to the internet to argue about their favorites. Some specific nominations have garnered press, such as first-time nominee Scarlett Johansson gaining not one but two nominations this year, an honor that has not occurred in more than a decade. The real kicker this year, however, is the Academy’s stubborn refusal to nominate women in directing categories or people of Asian descent in acting categories.
In a year riddled with firsts, Parasite—directed by Bong Joon Ho—has the honor of being the first Korean film to ever earn a nomination for Best Picture at the Oscars. Parasite has also been nominated for Best International Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and two additional technical nominations, according to ABC.
Despite all the love, one category is severely lacking when it comes to the movie’s Oscar nominations. None of the actors from any of Parasite’s roles have been nominated for any of the four acting awards. This choice on part of the Academy is emblematic of its history of apprehension when it comes to actors of Asian descent. Historically, only one percent of Oscar nominations have been for Asians across the board since the ceremony began, according to the HuffPost. Of that elusive one percent, only one Asian woman—Merle Oberon—was ever nominated for Best Actress during that time; Oberon earned her nomination all the way back in 1935. She didn’t win.
The last time an Asian director was nominated for an Asian-led movie such as Parasite was in 2013, when Ang Lee was nominated for Best Director for his film Life of Pi. In the same troubling vein as Parasite, Life of Pi also failed to garner any acting nominations despite nominations in major categories such as Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography. This pattern the Academy has leaned into is a troubling one, especially when coupled with their trepidation concerning female directors.
In the award show’s history, only one woman has ever won Best Director—Kathryn Bigelow—and it was for a male-driven movie; The Hurt Locker. While The Hurt Locker is obviously a seminal piece of film, it also begs the question: can a woman be nominated for a film that leans into its femininity?
If one looks to the nominations this year, the answer is a resounding “no.” The Academy’s stubborn reliance on traditional male cinematic values prevents it from awarding a feminist movie like Little Women with both a Best Picture and a Best Director nomination. While there are more Best Picture nominees than Best Director, how can Little Women—a movie directed by and starring women—be nominated for the Picture category, but not Director?
The choices made within the Academy are worrisome, and not just at face value. The way The Oscars work is that a select representative group of “academy members” vote for their awards. The most obvious issue with that arises when one looks at the demographics of the voting pool: only 31 percent are female and, even more concerning, a measly 16 percent are non-white, according to a 2018 New York Times report.
This internal bias, conscious or not, is a dangerous one to continue to uphold. It begets the idea that the only stories and art that the United States, and by extension the world, cares about are white, male-driven and male-centric. If the Academy continues to almost exclusively award those types of stories, they’re the only stories that will get made.
Maria Pawlak is an English education major freshman who already misses Milne.