This is a little bit of a bait and switch because there is nothing particularly abstruse about this post. The ideas are pretty easy to understand, not at all esoteric, or obscure. This is essentially an Oscar post. The Academy managed to dodge a bullet this year, and it remains to be seen whether it will carry through next year’s film releases into the 2018 Oscar nominees and winners.
Cheryl Boone Isaacs, President of the AMPAS did take the backlash from last year’s #oscarsowhite and launch a concerted effort to include a wider range of film professionals as Academy members. A quick glance through the list of talent added under the new push shows people who have been in the business for many years, with credible projects under their belts. Two names that stood out to me when I first glanced through the list were Nia Long and Jacob Vargas.
Neither of these people are household names per se, or more accurately whether they are or not depends on your household. Overall, several of the names are actors who have paid their professional dues. Some of their careers spanning at least twenty years, so you figure they have to know a little something about their craft, and yet without the Academy making that concerted effort, they might never have gotten to participate in or contribute to their industry’s biggest showcase.
My Oscar six degree of separation: I was fired in St. George, Utah by someone who appears in one of the nine films nominated for Best Picture.
Chicago born, Mexican-American actor Michael Peña has been in 43 films, including last year’s Oscar nominated, The Martian and Oscar Best Picture winner, Crash, compared to Oscar nominated Englishman Andrew Garfield’s 11 films and Canadian Ryan Gosling’s 22 films to date. The nomination for La La Land is Gosling’s second in the Best Actor category. The first was for Half Nelson, where he was indeed quite good. Casey Affleck, who is a little bit closer in age to Pena, but has done 11 fewer films, is also up to his second Oscar nomination. Quality, of course, is not the same as quantity, but I’ll go out on a limb and say, Peña is no less talented than Affleck, Gosling or Garfield.
First film I remember seeing: The Jungle Book at an outdoor movie theater in Agana, Guam.
Shooter with Mark Wahlberg, who has also been nominated twice for an Oscar, is the film where I realized how good Peña could be. There’s a scene where his character, Nick Memphis, makes a quick transition from goofball to professional. He effects a flawless kind of execution in the moment. The film itself is sort of by the numbers boring, but Peña, not Wahlberg, made it worth watching.
I chose Michael Peña because his career is illustrative of others who have put in the work, and get close, but never quite get the roles or consideration that help them break all the way through to become a nominee. He was in Ant-Man, so he even has the Marvel superhero film box checked off on his resume.
His best chance to date for an Oscar nomination was probably End of Watch, for which he did receive a Best Supporting Actor Independent Spirit Award nominee. Hopefully, there will be more opportunities like those for him.
The Academy has also benefited this award season by the domination of the 45th president and his clown car administration of just about every news cycle with one you have got to be kidding story after another. The issues affect such a wide range of people directly, including members of the film community like Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, most are looking without, to see how these stupidities will be addressed. Coupled with the fortuitous release of more than one ‘quality’ film with black actors this year, it looks like progress. Maybe it is. Unless of course there aren’t enough films currently in production right now, good enough, with distinct enough characters and casts to make the considerations cut for 2018.
It is not entirely in the Academy’s hands. All the inclusion in the world in the ranks of eligible, Academy voting members makes no difference if they do not have good films that are also representative in casting and themes for consideration.
It is a better year perhaps for non-whites in the major Oscar categories, but the opposite of non-white is not, only black. Still, as always there is a distinct lack of American latinx or asian actors represented in the acting categories. I specify American, because Dev Patel is nominated. Although, even his nomination illustrates an obstacle unique to American actors of hispanic and Asian descent. Representation for those actors is often conflated with the achievements of their international counterparts as though it’s all the same. It isn’t.
Old Boy’s Min-shik Choi being nominated for an Oscar, for some future project, would be awesome, but it wouldn’t have the same impact here, if say, the Fast and the Furious’ Gainesville, Georgia born Sung Kang was ever nominated, or Los Angeles raised John Cho. Or George Takei. How glorious would it be to see Mr. Takei give an Oscar speech.
No predictions, but it would be quite a thing of beauty if Moonlight, managed to sneak in a Best Picture win.
Michael Peña
RIP Bill Paxton, One False Move is one of my favorites.
Source: IMDB
Tedium! 
The #OscarsSoWhite hashtag was effective in a way because the Academy added 600 more voters this year, instead of 100, to add some diversity. But I totally agree that there’s still so far to go until how our society looks is represented on film. The whole quality over quantity is also important. Can an African-American actress win without playing a maid role? Films with roles like the ones in Hidden Figures are rare, but so important, and hopefully will continue to be made.
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