It’s the fairy tale story of all Oscars: the complete outsider who comes from nowhere to challenge the big studios and stars, and prove that talent can win money and power in Hollywood.
And it was a possibility again this year when British actress Andrea Riseborough was unexpectedly nominated for her critically acclaimed but little-seen performance in To Leslie, an independent film about a single mother who becomes an alcoholic and drug addict after squandering a big prize. lottery.
Instead of enjoying its remarkable success, however, Riseborough has taken center stage in America’s increasingly bitter debate over race.
Because Riseborough, the son of ‘Thatcherite working class’ from the Tyneside town of Wallsend, is unfortunate enough to have completed a shortlist for this year’s Best Actress Oscar without any black actors in it.
Controversy: Andrea Riseborough walks the red carpet at the 76th Venice Film Festival in 2019
And notably, neither Viola Davis, star of the controversial historical drama The Woman King, nor Danielle Deadwyler, who plays the mother of 1950s lynching victim Emmett Till in the film Till, were nominated.
It has prompted accusations that the Oscars have “snubbed” two prominent African-American films and their stars.
An embarrassed Academy has since launched an investigation into how a low-budget film company could have campaigned so successfully to get its lead actress on the shortlist.
Set in West Texas but filmed in Los Angeles over just 19 days during the pandemic, To Leslie was directed by British filmmaker Michael Morris.
When the Mail went to press, the Academy was due to discuss the film over allegations that it may have violated his campaign rules.
The film earned just $27,000 (around £21,800) on its release last October and had, until now, gained little recognition in Riseborough. It was passed over at the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards, both generally seen as reliable predictors of which movies are likely to win big at the Oscars.
Unlike Till and The Woman King, which were backed by Hollywood studios United Artists and Sony, respectively, To Leslie lacked millions to spend on Oscar promotional campaigns. Michael Morris and his wife, the well-connected American actress Mary McCormack, relied instead on a high-profile word-of-mouth push.
They showed the film to their friend, shock-jock radio DJ Howard Stern, who liked it and promoted it on his show.
Snub: Danielle Deadwyler as the mother of 1950s lynching victim Emmett Till in the film Till
A “celebrity-endorsed campaign” to promote the film went into overdrive, as Charlize Theron, Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore, Courteney Cox and Edward Norton hosted the screenings.
Kate Winslet and Amy Adams moderated the virtual Q&A with Riseborough, while Cate Blanchett mentioned her performance in her acceptance speech at the Critics’ Choice Awards.
After McCormack emailed friends asking them to support the film on social media, stars like Jane Fonda, Liam Neeson, Sally Field and Geena Davis were among those who did.
“It just hit me sideways,” Paltrow enthused. “Andrea should win every award there is.”
The Academy’s membership is divided into 17 branches, each of which elects nominees in its area of expertise. With around 1,300 members in the acting branch, a nominee needs just over 200 votes to be shortlisted.
The endorsement of high-profile white stars for Riseborough, 41, has barely endeared himself to the Oscars process among critics, who say the saga is further proof that the Academy’s commitment to racial diversity is symbolic only. Ominously, the hashtag ‘OscarsSoWhite’ has made a reappearance on Twitter.
For others, however, the expectation of black stars appearing among the nominees raises troubling questions about what should be entirely subjective artistic judgment.
The breed has become a go-to theme for award ceremonies in the United States.
The academy’s membership, whose eligibility is based on having feature credits, has grown dramatically in the past five years, largely in response to criticism that it was too white, masculine and older.
Overlooked: Viola Davis stars in controversial historical drama The Woman King
White stars and Oscar judges are free to endorse other white actors in the nominations process, but since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, they risk having their motives called into question.
Furious Nigerian-American director Chinonye Chukwu did so this week after the star of her film, Till, which won Bafta and Screen Actors Guild nominations, was passed over by the Oscars.
‘Us . . . working in industries that are so aggressively committed to defending whiteness and perpetuating blatant misogyny towards Black women,” she said in an Instagram post. ‘And yet. I will always be grateful for the greatest lesson of my life: regardless of any challenge or obstacle, I will always have the power to cultivate my own joy, and it is this joy that will continue to be one of my greatest forms of resilience. ‘
His cause was quickly followed by others. In the Los Angeles Times, Robert Daniels, a film noir critic, contrasted the “stunning” nomination of a white British actress in a “seldom-seen” film with the film industry’s “trouble” in recognizing black women.
‘What does it mean that black women who did everything the institution asks of them – fancy dinners, private academy screenings, meet and greets, flashy TV ads and magazine profiles – are ignored when someone who did everything outside the system is it rewarded?
Daniels, like the director of Till, does not appear to have considered the possibility that the judges did not believe that Viola Davis (who won an Oscar for the 2016 period drama Fences, and has been nominated three other times) and Danielle Deadwyler were worthy. of Oscar nominations.
In Davis’s case, her performance was marred by yet another racial controversy, this time over the failure of The Woman King, despite being billed as “based on powerful true events” to address the fact that the kingdom The African from Dahomey was as committed to slavery as the Europeans. intruders
Rave Reviews: Riseborough stars as motel owner Sweeney in To Leslie, which is based on the true story of a West Texas woman who wins the lottery and squanders her fortune.
Others said it was ironic that critics complained about racial representation when this year marks the first time an Asian woman, Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, has been nominated for Best Actress.
Some observers believe that the Academy bosses have only themselves to blame if some now expect black contenders to be nominated in major categories each year.
Organizers caved in front of the OscarsSoWhite campaign in 2015, when all 20 nominations in the acting categories were white. Activists claimed that the winners were overwhelmingly white because the judges were too.
Despite studies suggesting this was not the case, Hollywood put “diversity” into full throttle.
In 2020, the Academy unveiled its ‘Representation and Inclusion Standards Entry’ (RAISE) policy, which insists that for a film to qualify as Best Picture, producers must meet two of its four diversity standards.
These are designed to ensure that ethnic minorities, women, and the disabled are included in the film-making process, from the actors on screen to the creators behind the scenes.
The movie world has until next year’s Oscars to comply with these strict new rules, which some have attacked as ‘Orwellian’.
That an immensely talented but under-recognized British actress should essentially suffer for having the wrong color also seems deeply Orwellian.