“From the first seconds of his monologue, Chris Rock did not hold back on addressing the racial tension in Hollywood and in America, referring to the Oscars as the ‘White People’s Choice Awards.'”
Category: media
These Films And Actors Might Not Win Oscars, But They Dominated The Indie Spirit Awards
“It was as if the Independent Spirits, which manage to pull off an impish, scrappy vibe despite counting Bank of America and American Airlines among their sponsors, were gleefully sending rebuke after rebuke to the beleaguered Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and its #OscarsSoWhite ways.”
Al-Jazeera America Bows Out With A Valedictory Look Back
“AJAM online’s legacy, some of it captured on these pages, is a journalism of value and of values not tied to any ideology or political entity but morally committed when confronted by racism and bigotry, violence against the innocent, injustice and inequality, sexism and homophobia. We tried in our brief tenure to uphold the fine tradition of an American journalism that comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.”
In Honor Of These Oscars, Let’s Look At All The Times The Academy Picked The Wrong Best Picture
“Let’s take a walk through the past four decades of Best Picture winners of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It’s an almost unbroken chain of incorrect decisions!”
Advertisers’ Awkward Oscars Dilemma
“Advertisers, who are paying record prices for air time, find themselves in an awkward position. They want to attach themselves to the glamour of Hollywood without having their brands tarnished by the controversy over the all-white slate of acting nominees.”
The Demographics Of The Academy Of Motion Pictures, By The Numbers
“In 2012, The Times reported that Oscar voters were 94% white and 77% male. Four years later, the academy has made scant progress: Oscar voters are 91% white and 76% male, according to a new Times study. Blacks are about 3% of the academy, up from 2%; Asians and Latinos are each just over 2%, with both groups up slightly.”
Looking For Creativity In Movies? Short Films Are Where It’s At
“Some of the most creative and engaging stories today are being told through short films, even as the genre remains marginalized in the cultural mainstream.”
Happy Poor People: What Kids Learn About Class From Hollywood
A team of sociologists “took the 32 G-rated films that, as of January 1, 2014, had grossed more than $100 million, and that included a character who had a social class (Bambi, for example, did not), … and watched the films carefully to get a sense of which messages about class they communicated.”
Why Did “Jeopardy” Just Ban Canadians From Competing On The Show?
Some suggest our digital privacy and anti-spam laws might be the cause, while others suggest that maybe we’re just smarter than Americans who don’t want to be upstaged by “moose-munching iceholes.”
Is HBO Faltering?
“HBO is in a period of challenge. It hasn’t had a breakout drama hit since Game of Thrones launched in 2011, and in recent months, it has seen several troubled shows go expensively into and then out of production.”