By Abubakar D. Sani, Esq.

Of being celebrated and feted

By your peers, purely on

The basis of merit and achievement

Then look no further than the Oscars –

Those elegant, gold-plated statuettes

Handed out annually

By the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

In the United States, to acknowledge

Technical and artistic excellence

In motion pictures – popularly called movies

Inaugurated in 1929

The Big Five awards are for:

Best Actress, Best Actor

Best Picture, Best Director

And Best Screenplay

These are so competitive

That only three films –

“Silence of The Lambs” in 1991;

“It Happened One Night” in 1934 and

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in 1975

Have won all five of them

Talking of number of Oscars won,

Walt Disney leads the pack:

With 22 awards in all,

He dwarfs the likes of

Daniel Day-Lewis and Walter Brennan

Who have won three times each

For Best Actor & Best Supporting Actor,

Respectively

As for Best Actress,

Katherine Hepburn takes the honours:

With 4 awards,

She is closely followed

By Meryl Streep, with 2

Honourable mention must,

However, be made

Of Marlee Martin, who at 22

Became the youngest winner,

For “Children of a Lesser God”

On the flip side,

Who can forget Jessica Tandy’s turn

In “Driving Ms. Daisy”

For which she became, at 80,

The oldest winner

Of the Best Actress award

Pride Amid Prejudice . . .

A striking feature

Of all these winners, however

(And, by extension, the nominees)

Is the absence of diversity

In terms of race or ethnicity

A persistent criticism of the Awards,

It famously culminated

In the social media hashtag

#OscarsSoWhite, at the 88th Awards

This supposedly prompted

‘Historic’ changes in

The Academy’s membership

Aimed at addressing the imbalance

Which, to be perfectly honest,

Is more real than imagined

As, apart from the awards

For Best Original Song

Best Actress, Best Actor,

And their ‘runners-up’

(That is, the best supporting Actress/Actor)

Only one Black-American –

Steve McQueen for “Twelve Years A Slave”

Has won the Oscar for Best Picture

Indeed, it is said

That, since 1926

A mere 6.4 per cent

Of Oscar nominees

Have been non-white

By 1991, this had improved,

Marginally, to 11.2 per cent

More tellingly, however,

More white actresses

Have won Oscars for

‘Yellow-face’ portrayals

Of Asian characters

Than actual Asian actresses

None of this, should however,

Hold us back from recognizing

The achievements of actors of colour:

From Sidney Poitier

The first black man to win Best Actor

(For “Lilies of the Field” in 1963)

To Denzel Washington

For 2001’s “Training Day”

To Jamie Fox

In 2004, for “Ray”

And, finally, to Forrest Whitaker

In 2006, for “The Last King of Scotland”

Sadly, among black actresses

Only Halle Berry –

In 2001, for “Monster’s Ball”

Has gotten the nod

They’ve, however, fared better

As Best Supporting Actresses

With fully eight of them

Walking away with the Award

Compared to only six men

In the comparable male category

As the following run-down will show:

From the latest, Regina King

For “If Beale Street Could Talk” in 2018

Preceded by Viola Davies

In 2016, for “Fences”

And, before, that

Lupita Nyong’o,

Octavia Spencer,

Monique,

Jennifer Hudson,

Whoopi Goldberg,

And Hattie McDaniel

(Does anyone remember her?)

She won in 1939

For “Gone with the Wind”

In this category, black men

Have come rather late to the party

As their first winner, Louis Gossett, Jr.

Only emerged in 1982, in

“An Officer and A Gentleman”

Followed by Denzel Washington

In 1989, for “Glory”

And after him, in 1996

Cuba Gooding, Jr., for “Jerry Maguire”

Followed by Morgan Freeman

In 2004, for “Million Dollar baby”

And finally, in 2016 & 2018

Mahershala Ali, in “Moonlight”

And “Green Book”, respectively

Blacks have also done well

In the category of Best Original Song

With five of them

Winning the award –

Including Isaac Hayes

(In 1971, for “Theme from Shaft “);

Irene Cara, in 1983

For “What A Feeling”

From “Flash Dance”

Lionel Ritchie

In 1985, for “Say you, Say me”

From “White Nights”

And finally, in 2014

John Legend & Common

For “Glory”, in the film “Selma”

“And the Oscar for Best Picture goes to . . .”

It would take a whole book

To talk about the

Oscar for Best Picture

Yet, this review

Would be incomplete

Without a simple listing

Of some – at least

Of the past winners

They Include (in no particular order):

The Sound of Music; The English Patient

Moonlight; Slumdog Millionaire

Rain Man; The Shape of Water

Patton; The Hurt Locker

A Beautiful Mind; Driving Ms. Daisy

Crash; The Artist

Argo; Out of Africa

The King’s Speech; Braveheart

Gandhi; American Beauty

Gladiator; Mutiny on The Bounty

Forrest Gump; Kramer vs. Kramer

Grand Hotel; Birdman

Titanic; Spotlight

Platoon; Parasite

Ben Hur; West Side Story

Unforgiven; Rocky

The Departed; My Fair Lady

Chicago; From Here to Eternity

Terms of Endearment; Annie Hall

The Green Book; The Last Emperor

The Bridge Over River Kwai

The Best Years of Our Lives

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

No Country for Old Men

The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King

How Green Was My Valley

Million Dollar Babe; Shakespeare In Love

The French Connection; Midnight Cowboy

Amadeus; Dances with Wolves

My Fair Lady; Tom Jones

Twelve Years A Slave

Around the World in 80 Days

The Artist; Casablanca

The Sting; Lawrence of Arabia

The Life of Emile Zola

Mrs. Miniver; Rebecca

Unjust Denials?

Beyond the thrill

Of actually winning,

Equally fascinating

Are the so-called ‘Oscar snubs’

These are films which virtually everyone

Felt should have won

And when they lost

It was believed they were robbed

They include (in chronological order):

In 1975, “Jaws”

(Beaten by “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”)

In 1976, “Taxi Driver”

(Beaten by “Rocky”)

In 1977, “Star Wars”

(Lost out to “Annie Hall”)

In 1990, “Goodfellas”

(Beaten by “Dances with Wolves”)

In 1994, “Shawshank Redemption”

(Lost out to “Forrest Gump”)

In 1997, “L.A. Confidential” and “Good Will Hunting”

(They both lost out to “Titanic”)

In 2000, “Traffic & Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”

(They both lost out to “Gladiator”)

While we are at it . . .

Since the award

Is all about milestones

It would be apposite

To mention a few more

As well as other Oscar tid-bits:

“Chicago” (Best Picture in 2002)

Is credited with launching

The revival of the Hollywood musical;

While “Midnight Cowboy”

Is the only X-rated film

To win Best Picture (1969);

“Gone with the Wind”

Was the pioneer for colour films;

“The Last Emperor”

Is the first film to be shot

In Beijing’s “Forbidden City”;

Finally, “Parasite” (2019)

Was the first foreign language film

To win the Oscar for Best Picture

Flawed process?

In critiquing the Oscars,

Apart from the reputed

Lack of ethnic diversity

Among its winners and nominees,

Film studios desperate to win

Have also been accused of

‘Excessive commercialism’

By allegedly hiring publicists

To promote films

And with engaging in

So-called ‘whisper campaigns’

Against rival movies

By spreading negative

Perceptions about them

Another charge is that of bias

That is, an over-representation

Among award nominees

Of romantic historical epics,

Romantic ‘dramedies’,

Family melodramas

And biographical dramas

Yet another allegation

Is that of ‘Oscar-baiting’

That is, that the Academy

Selects specific genres of film

For consideration for the awards

Finally – related to

The previous charge –

Critics allege a

Disconnect in the awards

By the Academy supposedly

Favouring ‘Oscar-bait’

Over audience favourites

And historical dramas

Over critically-acclaimed

Movies which reflect

Contemporary issues

Before We Leave . . .

How better to sum up

Than with a montage

Of the titles of

The remaining winners

Of the Oscar for Best Picture

(Bar a handful) –

Rounding off with a famous line

Uttered at the very end

Of what is arguably

The greatest film ever made . . .

In the run-up to, possibly

“The Greatest Show on Earth”,

Film studio executives

Actors, actresses and technicians

(Both nominated and otherwise)

Had set themselves up

Either in “Apartments”

Or in hotels

Whether “Grand” or otherwise

Located “On the Waterfront”

Or, perhaps, not

And with good cause, too

For, there was a lot at stake –

Money, reputations and egos

As, that singular night

Was the culmination

Of what many regarded as

“The Best Years of Our Lives”

And “It (all) Happened One Night”

In other words,

One shot – that was all they had

Unless, of course,

They received multiple nominations

“In the Heat of The Night”

Many an actor who

Who considered himself

“A Man for All Seasons”

Quietly fretted and sweated

Hoped and prayed

That things would “Go (his) Way”

As, otherwise, it would be

Considered “A Lost Weekend”

As the night unfolded

To the strains of

“The Broadway Melody”

(Or perhaps, not)

Many – in fact, most

Were forced to accept

The reality that

Because the awards

Were not based

On a “Gentleman’s Agreement”,

As far as tonight was concerned,

The message was:

Sorry, “You Can’t Take It with You”

Forcing them, perhaps –

To draw an analogy

Between their fate

And the title of one

Of the lucky few

To have made it before them:

“All Quiet on The Western Front”

The same applies

To the actresses

Because, just as this was not

About “All the King’s Men”

So, it wasn’t

“All about Eve”

For, if good fortune

Deserts you on Oscar night

Neither “Wings” nor “Cavalcade”

Will come to your aid

Heaven help you

If you don’t take it

As they do

In Hollywood – stoically

For, complaining loudly

And bemoaning your fate

Will only earn you

A cold, icy stare –

In this most cynical of industries

As if to say:

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”

And if you had

The misfortune of

Having those words actually

Spoken to your face,

You wouldn’t need any reminding

That they were

The last words uttered

By Clark Gable

To Vivien Leigh

In “Gone with The Wind”.

Abubakar D. Sani, Esq.
[email protected], 08034533892