The Gotham Awards were held the other night, and the results were very Film Twitter-friendly. By that, I mean, no straight white men were awarded. In a lineup of names for Lead Performance, they have stuffed them all into a category together, almost as a dare. They’re daring voters to pick the straight white guy (if there is one), which they very likely never would. Yeah, well, not gonna happen. They picked just one white male for the “gender neutral” acting prizes: Troy Kotsur for CODA. Otherwise, their awards in their long list of names have gone, as expected, to women, women of color, and men of color. So far, no “non-binary” or transgender person has been chosen.
It isn’t really fair that men and women have to compete in the same category. I would have liked to see Jeffrey Wright and Andrew Scott go up against one another. I imagine Lily Gladstone would have won Best Actress regardless. Then, Charles Melton is winning for May and December, which is fine. But I would have loved to see Da’Vine Joy Randolph not having to compete against him. I would love to see who would have won in the Supporting Actress category.
But they are going to do what they are going to do, and here, they have been captured, along with most of Hollywood, by an ideology that seeks to reverse the power hierarchy: if white men are at the top, they go to the bottom, etc. It’s just odd, and an extra step one must always take when predicting or analyzing awards. Most of us know this is the case but few of us are willing to say so out loud. And why shouldn’t we be afraid? It comes down to jobs and money.
I expect the same will be true for New York, announcing tomorrow, though not as strictly as we’re seeing with the mess that is “gender-neutral categories…” which is giving Woke Jeans vibes.
Yes, make fun of them. Yes, they deserve it.
New York Film Critics, along with the National Board of Review — do occasionally resist the commands of the woketopians. But ultimately, they’re all part of the same organism. They have to be or they will screamed at and ostracized. No one wants that. They want to be given a pat on the head and told “good job!” by the Greek Chorus that is Film Twitter.
By now, it’s all become a little like fantasy football or a diorama of idealized film awards where everyone gets a certificate. No one wants to go back to the days of all white people all of the time. But we’ve arrived on the extreme’s far end since 2020 (aka the Great Awokening). The BAFTA, as we know, has revolted. Last year, they stubbornly refused to virtue genuflect and were criticized for it.
This is a good time to talk about what I mean by “WOKE.” I don’t mean it in the way the Black community means it or sees it or uses it or abandons it. I mean it as a newfound religion or zealotry on the Left (mostly). It has taken the place of actual religion but has turned people deemed marginalized into sacred beings who are to be elevated. This is necessary to dismantle what most cultural leaders on the Left see as the “white male patriarchy.”
Here is Wesley Yang’s definition of it:
This ideology has completely captured nearly all film criticism, film punditry, film studios and the Oscar race. Every so often, a film manages to escape the dogmatic mandates, but it’s very rare. Thus, when we look at critics awards we have to think like they do (if you do not already, which most reading this probably already do). You look at a list of films like this:
And you think, is Anatomy of a Fall better than All of Us Strangers, Poor Things, or the Zone of Interest? Or is it winning mainly because the director is female and France did not choose the film for its International Feature submission? It isn’t the only film with a female director. They could have gone with Totem, which Lila Avilés, a Mexican filmmaker, directed. But since Anatomy won the Palme d’Or it will be set on the same track, I figure, as Drive My Car. It will be wrapped and ready for the Oscar race to be delivered as the Best Picture nominee by the critics, who will stand behind it unanimously.
Of course, plenty of people feel all of these winners are deserving and no white men can ever be deserving because they already have everything and dominate everything so why give them an award for anything? It is just a strange way to choose “best,” that’s all.
You can try to defy it and revolt as the BAFTA voters have done, but I am not sure we’ll ever get back to voting for “best” without it going hand in hand with identity, which matters much more. Keep in mind we’re still dealing with a white-dominant culture, society, and industry. It’s just that those at the top, the richest and most powerful among us, must be absolved of their sins. One way to do that is to virtue genuflect to project an image of diversity, equity and inclusion even if the power centers remain mostly the same.
By the way, all of this is illustrated in one of the best films of the year, American Fiction. This shows you how art can say what so many of us can’t and have it mean something.
It is possible to tell a story without the central meaning of the film rooted in identity, meaning the story is bigger than the story of someone’s identity in an insulated, isolated “woketopia.” Some of those films this year have included David Fincher’s The Killer, Ben Affleck’s Air, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, the upcoming George Clooney’s The Boys in the Boat, Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi’s Nyad, etc.
A film like Barbie offers up a subtle critique of the ideology while also managing not to offend the ideology.
All of this to say that the way to watch these upcoming awards is to understand the driving force behind some of them – they are good people doing things, as opposed to choosing what most of us would think of as “best” or films that might stand the test of time. Movies that speak to the moment likely have an ongoing conversation with this strident, ubiquitous ideology.
And that will, in turn, push its way into the Oscar race because they all kind of go along with the same groupthink. The Oscar voters are still very much caught up in the ideology and thus, can be very easily influenced by the critics, more than they ever have been in the years I’ve been covering the Oscars.
So, Anatomy of a Fall is likely in for Best Pic and Charles Melton likely cracks the already crowded Supporting Actor race.