Gina Prince-Bythewood & Viola Davis open up about the Oscars shutout & white Riseborough campaign

[imnotasquirrel]

"I was struck by the Academy members who simply didn’t want to see the film," Gina Prince-Bythewood says about #TheWomanKing. "What is this inability of Academy voters to see Black women, and their humanity, and their heroism as relatable to themselves?" https://t.co/fIHjrSeQiK
- The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 7, 2023

"My issue with what

Comments

[vibeology_e]

They are both completely on point and I’m glad they’re saying it. Black women cannot get away with the type of campaigning that was done for and by Andrea Riseborough. White women will not go to bat for them the same way and the consequences for flouting the rules would be far more severe.

[vanilla_09]

and not just black women, look at how much Michelle Yeoh has to HUSTLE for a nom after 30+ years in HW. Like it's so crazy to me how white people's perception is warped. They consider the whole PR campaign as part of the HW system and therefore an advantage when for POC's it's legit the only route to some type of success which requires months of commitment, time and effort. Like Viola's chances were slim and she still put in the work. Danielle was carrying that movie on her back all by herself and Stephanie Hsu was still on the circuit even though she wasn't getting any noms to make sure that at least the movie could secure other noms.

[imnotasquirrel]

i said this in the BKR post already, but it's so annoying how people will insist it's ridiculous to say that andrea riseborough has more social capital than an A-lister like viola davis. being known/appreciated by general audiences doesn't translate to having the sort of social connections that mary mccormack employed.

andrea defenders would probably say the same thing about michelle yeoh. but let's be real, if michelle yeoh were a d-lister whose movie didn't make the gigantic splash that EEAAO did, she wouldn't have come close to being nominated, unlike andrea. so who has more social capital here?

[melancolour]

Id say andrea doesnt have more social capital, but that white privilege means that proximity to social capital is enough for her while actual social capital is not enough for POC.

[jojito]

She's absolutely right. People are acting like Andrea's nomination is some sort of disruptive act, but she is clearly very well connected and that is just as good as having lots of campaign money.

So, this is just another day in Hollywood.

[lolitalockheart]

That's what I don't get about people championing it as an Indie film win, do you really think any Indie film without the same connections would be able to do the same?

[jojito]

Exactly. This isn't the David/Goliath story people think it is.

And this was started by A-listers, ffs. Her performance wasn't being championed by the audience. A real grassroots movement should've been started by regular people, but nobody gave a fuck about the movie.

[sockymous]

I remember watching "I'm fine (thanks for asking)"... an immersive journey in a mother's day struggling to get by and provide to her daughter, and I mean... indie, lowkey and it deserved everything.

I am not in the US, but I don't recall ANY buzz around it...
https://g.co/kgs/4DVbnY

[doriiansz]

The system is still very old and very white and as long as it is, things like shutting out WOC out of all these big categories at awards shows, denying them recognition just shows how prevalent racism still is even in such a "progressive" environment as entertainment business. As sb here said in some post two steps forward, three steps back. Every damn time. Look how fast all these white women rallied around Andrea, a fellow white woman. This is why all these speeches preaching equality and inclusion (that usually happen when a white woman wins) don't impress me at all, because white people will always have other white people's interest as a priority. Anybody who denies it or tries to downplay it is a fool in my book 💁

[aleksie]

They can't even be bothered to give a half-assed "apology"- not that it would mean much, but I think it's indicative that they don't believe they did anything wrong and there won't be any major public backlash.

[totteringg]

Because it’s not wrong to advocate for a small movie that otherwise would be completely unrecognized. You can say it’s unfortunate that Viola and Danielle got pushed out but that’s not the fault of anyone who posted about the movie or held screenings besides I guess that one Frances Fisher posted where she mentioned specific names. There’s nothing to apologize for.

[palmsread]

it was completely (conveniently) unrecognized until the very last minute

[neuers]

The more I think about it, the angrier I feel.

Both Gina and Viola are right. The Academy just doesn't value the work they do and only sorta includes them for the optics. And PoC, especially black women, would never benefit from a campaign like that and I'm sick and tired of people insisting that it totally could happen and that AR's nom is a good thing.

[dr_bong]

The women king was a bad movie
About a really messed up subject matter that was glorified by the writers and director of the movie
Nobody here watched it.

[jinxeh13]

Yeah tbh I'm a little surprised by all the people going to bat for this movie / Viola, as though this community wasn't super critical of the movie before all of this Oscar drama started.

The movie is about an African King who is opposed to slavery, when in real life he was a vicious slaver who raided villages to sell slaves to the Portuguese, and it's how he made his wealth and boosted the economy in his kingdom. It's fucked up that they ignored that.

[theactualworst]

I’m not saying it’s right but films based in history have been doing this forever. Especially white centered films. So people coming out this hard against a black film for it seems disingenuous to me tbh.

[belle_chouette]

"There may be diversity on your sets but not in your lives."

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼