This is the Fandom Five for Jan 23 2019. Five Minutes in Fandom Five Days a week. Today we'd like to thank the academy
This week we got the list of Oscar Nominees and I think that everyone was shocked when Black Panther was in the running for Best Picture. Don't get me wrong I loved the movie, but its not the typical kind of movie that is listed in the Best Picture Category, and if it wins it will be the FIRST EVER OSCAR WIN FOR THE MCU. Regardless of if it wins or not you can probably bet that you'll hear the phrase "I'd Like to thank the academy" if you watch the oscars. The Oscars are also known as the Academy awards but who is the academy, who is the group that gets to pick these lucky winners and why do they matter?
Membership in the academy is by invitation only and to get that prestigious invite you either have to have won an oscar in your field, actors can't claim a best make up oscar and composers can't take the credit for best supporting actor. But the best part of this membership is that its not like my costco card... it never expires....
According to a February 2012 study conducted by the Los Angeles Times (sampling over 5,000 of its 5,765 members), the Academy at that time was 94% white, 77% male, 86% age 50 or older, and had a median age of 62. A third of members were previous winners or nominees of Academy Awards themselves. Of the academy's 43-member board of governors, only six were female; Cheryl Boone Isaacs was the sole person of color on the board.
But you may remember a few years ago that the hashtag Oscars so white took off criticizing the lack of diversity in the academy and the nominees (all of the 2016 nominees were white.)
In 2016, the Academy invited 683 new members that were made up of nearly half women and people of color, but it was still disproportionately white and male (89% and 73%, respectively); it is committed to doubling the number of women and minorities in its group by 2020.
So as the membership of the academy starts to reflect the movie going audience we may begin to see more comic book flicks taking home big oscars, but until then expect to see a lot more art house films racking up the awards.
Last year for the 2017 awards I feel that both Logan and Wonder Woman were the two biggest snubs to comics that I've seen for a long time, and it might be because Wonder Woman was the first DCEU Film that didn't flop, but then again they did give Suicide Squad a Makeup oscar and that film was TERRIBLE. And I have no idea why Logan would have been snubbed it was so good.
Well Which comic book movies do you think were snubbed. Let us know in the Facebook group, The fandomaniacs which you can get to by going to FandomPodcast.com/Group
If you want more Fandom Discussion head over to FandomPodcast.com to subscribe to The Fandom Podcast and until next: May the Fandom Be with you!
