2017-2018 Awards Season

All non-Nolan related film, tv, and streaming discussions.
User avatar
Posts: 3508
Joined: May 2010
There should definitely be more women directors in the industry, no doubt.

Portman’s comment irked me as well. There was absolutely no need to tear down the nominee’s accomplishment just because of their gender. A more thoughtful way of going about it should have been acknowledging some of the women directors and maybe gracefully address that in the very near future she hopes women will be more prevalent in this category and gender equality won’t be an issue. After Oprah’s speech that was heartfelt and evoked a united front, her comment felt classless.

User avatar
Posts: 510
Joined: July 2017
Even just saying "Hopefully next year we get to see great female directors in the spotlight" would have been 10 times better than insinuating that the 5 nominees got there because of sexism.

User avatar
Posts: 1016
Joined: April 2013
I see that Portman is still being censured for her statement here, which I think was anything but malicious towards the nominees. It's obvious, and I'm certain the fact does not escape Portman, that all the nominees worked hard and they themselves had little to do with Gerwig or Rees or even Bigelow not being nominated. It was a jab at the establishment which she fortunately took during the introduction of the nominees to make sure their faces being shown next would give it a more biting quality in addition to the moral pith of the whole endeavour. Was it slightly at the expense of the nominees? Yes. Was it aimed at them? No.

User avatar
Posts: 835
Joined: December 2013
MeLVaNoaTe wrote:I see that Portman is still being censured for her statement here, which I think was anything but malicious towards the nominees. It's obvious, and I'm certain the fact does not escape Portman, that all the nominees worked hard and they themselves had little to do with Gerwig or Rees or even Bigelow not being nominated. It was a jab at the establishment which she fortunately took during the introduction of the nominees to make sure their faces being shown next would give it a more biting quality in addition to the moral pith of the whole endeavour. Was it slightly at the expense of the nominees? Yes. Was it aimed at them? No.
this is fine and all, but she signed a petition in support of roman polanski. along with many other hollywood elites that are now performatively going off about the me too movement which seems like a pretty transparent PR move.

I mean I'm not trying to condemn people for life for supporting Polanski at one point in time because nobody's perfect and all that. It's just that what I watched of these awards was really awkward. I mean for years a serial rapist had an insane amount of influence during award season and everyone went along with it to further their careers. Now suddenly it's Christopher Nolan's and Guillermo Del Toro's fault that the HFPA stupidly snubbed Gerwig. Just a whole lotta hypocrisy.

User avatar
Posts: 3508
Joined: May 2010
Obvious or not on whether she was calling out the HFPA, they all looked ashamed when their names were said. And that’s why I have a problem with her comment. It did undermine their work.

Posts: 8437
Joined: August 2012
Her statement was too vague to sound like a "jab at the establishment" though. It, combined with the nominees' reactions, comes off as a petty jab at the nominees themselves instead. The "shade" or burn or whatever IS VERY WELL deserved, it just doesn't land where it was supposed to imo. I'm sure it wasn't Portman's intention, but watching it, it almost seems like the intention is to make these directors feel bad or embarrassed about being nominated, as if they're the actual problem, contributing to female directors being overlooked. Like, how were they supposed to react? This whole thing is just so awkward, but the internet's fine with it, so maybe I'm wrong

User avatar
Posts: 835
Joined: December 2013
Ruth wrote:Her statement was too vague to sound like a "jab at the establishment" though. It, combined with the nominees' reactions, comes off as a petty jab at the nominees themselves instead. The "shade" or burn or whatever IS VERY WELL deserved, it just doesn't land where it was supposed to imo. I'm sure it wasn't Portman's intention, but watching it, it almost seems like the intention is to make these directors feel bad or embarrassed about being nominated, as if they're the actual problem, contributing to female directors being overlooked. Like, how were they supposed to react? This whole thing is just so awkward, but the internet's fine with it, so maybe I'm wrong
yea it just put the nominees in an awkward spot where no matter how they reacted would be scrutinized to some extent. She could've used her time on stage to shoutout greta gerwig or something instead.

User avatar
Posts: 249
Joined: December 2017
BlairCo wrote:
Quell wrote:So this "all-male" thing going on is incredibly annoying and void of any common sense.
How? You fear that it'll reach the point where men won't be included in anything at all?
No. It's sexism, plain and simple. The nominees were nominated on merit, not for what's in their pants.

User avatar
Posts: 1016
Joined: April 2013
It's likely not everyone will agree with me but here goes. Yes her statement would have made the nominees feel uncomfortable, and maybe it gave off a vibe that their works were not deserving - I personally don't agree with the latter. I feel however that if the nominees had to endure that one awkward moment - and I reiterate again that the situation had little to do with them - in contribution to a cause as enormous as this, to combat a deep-rooted problem whose victims have suffered far worse, then we can live with that. Besides, the reactions to the moment have been about Portman and the issue rather than people questioning the efforts of the nominees. The closest we have come to that is people saying Gerwig should be nominated rather than singling-out any of the nominees.

User avatar
Posts: 3417
Joined: April 2009
Location: Cali
Portman's words (and this is coming from someone who likes her a lot) were absolutely intentional and unnecessary.

Post Reply