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How many of this year’s Oscar-nominated films have you seen? Since the pandemic, our movie-viewing habits have changed dramatically. Fewer people are venturing out to cinemas and studios are making movies easier to view at home via streaming services.
Of the 10 titles up for the Best Picture nomination, I’ve seen Everything Everywhere All at Once; The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans, All Quiet on the Western Front, Elvis and Tár. (All viewed from the comfort of my home.) While The Whale hasn’t been nominated for Best Picture, I am hoping to watch it tonight to take in Brendan Fraser’s performance given that he seems to be the favourite for Actor in a Leading Role.
Even if you haven’t seen many of the movies or performances, will you be tuning in to watch the telecast of the Academy Awards? It’s usually an entertaining broadcast and sometimes makes news for all the wrong reasons – remember last year’s “slap heard around the world”?
To get you ready for Oscar night, I’ve assembled some great reads from the global network of The Conversation about the nominated movies and some of the issues raised by the films.
Have a great weekend and we’ll be back in your Inbox on Monday.
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Weekend Reads: The Oscars
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Ari Mattes, University of Notre Dame Australia
Of the ten films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, six are really good.
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Pragya Agarwal, Loughborough University
Ageism is pervasive and these women are still exceptions in society.
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Joyleen Christensen, University of Newcastle
The outrageous martial arts scenes in Everything Everywhere All At Once pay homage to classic films like Jackie Chan’s Rumble In The Bronx and the Hui brothers’ The Private Eyes.
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Luke Barnes, Western Sydney University
The multiverse has been the topic of multiple recent films, such as Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Everything Everywhere All At Once: but what does science know about the multiverse?
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Beth Younger, Drake University
In a thin-obsessed culture, fatness has become its own kind of monster.
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Santiago Fouz Hernández, Durham University
The queer fat man’s body at the heart of The Whale is an image sorely lacking from the screen – as an expert in men and masculinity on film explains.
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Jacqueline Warwick, Dalhousie University; Jacob Caines, Dalhousie University
‘Tár’ shines a spotlight on the challenges of working in the ultraconservative world of classical music, including complex social issues such as misogyny, racism and homophobia.
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Ruth Barton, Trinity College Dublin
How tax breaks, financial investment and Pierce Brosnan contributed to Ireland’s domination of the 2023 Academy Award nominations.
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Sam Firth, University of the West of Scotland
Awards aren’t just about improving chances in the eyes of funders – the recognition of an award can mean the difference between stopping and continuing.
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Timeka N. Tounsel, University of Washington
Big-name awards can certainly be a boon for Black filmmakers and actors. But they don’t reflect the breakthroughs that have been made in the types of Black stories that are getting told.
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Miriam Frankel, The Conversation
Physics makes a lot of assumptions about time that may be getting in the way of understanding the fourth dimension.
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