The Academy Awards, colloquially known as the Oscars, are often seen as the highest level of acclaim in the American film industry, and thus, as the goal that most filmmakers aim to achieve. The Oscars can propel nominees into a perceived higher class of films, which gives the Oscars a great amount of power and influence. Oscar nominations and wins have come to represent a stamp of approval that affects the way in which the public thinks about these films. Nominated films are branded and marketed as the best, which not only gains those films higher sales, but also gains good reputations for the filmmakers and actors helping them gain funding for their future projects. Filmmaking is an art that relies on critical success, but it is also a business. While scholars and experts in the field determine critical success, successful sales are based on popularity and audience approval.
While critical success can definitely influence sales, a high grossing film does not guarantee critical success. Popular films are those with enormous gross box office numbers and high audience approval rates online. These filmmakers are usually able to create sequels and other films that are likely to appeal to audiences and thrive at the box office. Popular films are enormous players in America’s thriving film industry, yet there is usually a lack of representation or complete absence of these films at the Academy Awards. This trend is especially visible with Black films. Over the last 30 years, only 72 Black films have been nominated for any awards. In particular, 18 Black films have been nominated for Best Picture, but only 3 films have won. In addition, during the same time frame, there have been approximately 100 high grossing Black films with only a handful receiving nominations. If these films are well received by audiences, why are not these films being praised and commended by the Academy for their influence? My research seeks to look at the discrepancies between Oscar nominated films and popular high-grossing films with a particular focus on Black films and to identify underlying factors behind the way the Academy judges Black Film.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is an organization composed of prominent professionals in the films industry. Members are invited to the organization after reaching a certain level of acclaim in their careers (usually after an Academy nomination). Once they accept that invitation, members are able to vote. The Academy is divided into branches based on profession (editors, directors, etc.), and members of each branch vote on a specific subject when it comes time for award nominations (directors vote for directors, etc.). The most coveted award from the Academy, is the award for Best Picture because every branch votes in that category. With approval from each branch of filmmaking, these films are thought of as the best of what filmmaking has to offer.
The Academy has been criticized for being biased. Not only because of the presence of current film professionals voting on films that they have worked on, but also because of the lack of diversity. The majority (94%) of the Academy is white, 86% over the age of 50, and 77% are male. (“Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences”). The overwhelming uniformity within the Academy means that the majority of the members have a similar perspective, which can cause uniformity in the types of films that get nominated and might account for the disturbing lack of nominations for films featuring people of color. The discrepancy, in particular, is rooted in the sense that Black films that are geared towards or popular with Black audiences are often overlooked in favor of Black films geared towards a wider white audience.
My research compares Black films that were nominated for awards to high-grossing Black films that were not nominated. I hoped to find correlations in genre, subject matter, and intended audience. Genre, or how the movie is classified, usually seeks to identify the goals of the film, whether that is to produce a drama, comedy, or action film. Traditionally, certain genres like comedy are not taken as seriously by the Academy despite popularity with the audience. Subject matter stems from genre and speaks more to the context of the story. Subject matter deals with specific settings, occurrences, and details. Both genre and subject matter help to define or establish the intended audience. The intended audience is the group of people the filmmaker is trying to reach through the perspective given in the film and the overall message being portrayed. All three of these linked areas play a hand in the perception of the film and, thus, are probably major factors in critical and general audience reception.
First, I want to define what a Black film is. Determining film genre can never be definite because films incorporate many elements from different genres and film, as an art form, is dependent on interpretation. The problem of defining genre is worsened by the inclusion of race because race itself does not have clear boundaries. For the purposes of my research, I defined a Black film having a predominantly African American cast or where someone who is African American (or of African Descent) plays a lead role or a prominent supporting role. Therefore, a film with an African American lead character or a predominantly Black cast would be shown from the perspective of the character(s) and would inherently involve problems that African Americans faced. However, the trend to blind cast roles—roles where an actor is cast regardless of race but without a rewriting of the role in terms of race—further complicates the definition and affected my findings. Due to blind cast roles, certain films that I personally would not consider “Black films” were included based on my definition. For example, films like Independence Day (1996) and I, Robot (2004) feature Will Smith as the lead, but the subject matter is purely science fiction. Neither his character, nor the film’s perspective, is at all affected by being Black. Additionally, my research includes films like Shawshank Redemption (1994) where actors get supporting role credit, but their character is not important to the overall story. Their race does not hold significant weight to the story. Because actors like Will Smith and Morgan Freeman are often blind cast their films do not necessarily always take race into account, and the intended audience for their films widens to a mainstream, universal (majority white) viewership who does not have to grapple with the historical realities of a Black character. Science fiction, as a genre, further highlights the ways that genre can be used to empty out political significance. Blind casting of Black actors without the necessary steps to incorporate their culture into their characters makes it difficult to distinguish which films should be considered Black films. My criteria for Black film as a genre was the best way for me to identify the films for my comparison but blind casting greatly hinders the ability to clearly define Black Film. So even though films like Independence Day can be found amongst the highest grossing Black films under this definition, it widely is not received as a Black film by audiences due to blind casting. The first big difference between the list of high grossing Black films and Oscar nominated Black films is genre. Where the Oscar nominated films were almost all dramas the highest grossing films was comprised mostly of comedy, action, and science fiction films. A handful of these films received nominations but the majority of those nominations were for special effects and music. Only two out of this list of highest grossing Black films were nominated for Best Picture: The Help (2011) and The Blind Side (2009). The drastic difference between the amount of money these films made and the nominations they received (if any) shows that the Academy value drama over all other genres, and that genre is a key factor in determining a film’s merit. Although the opinions of professionals from the Academy and their judgment of the way a film is made is important, but should not the general audience’s opinion weigh in more when assessing a film’s quality?
In looking at the Black films that received Oscar nominations it was clear that dramas received more praise than any other genre, which already draw attention to the way in which the Academy votes. Specifically, the Best Picture category is almost always completely comprised of dramas. By titling the category Best picture, it is suppose to sound general in order to indicate that all genres are eligible to be nominated. However, this is not the case. The three Black films that received the most nominations were The Color Purple (1985) with eleven, Driving Miss Daisy (1989) with nine, and 12 Years A Slave (2013) with nine (See Appendix A). Further, all three films focus on a historical narrative set in time periods with more racial tension, and all three films were nominated for Best Picture in their respective years. The enormous amount of praise these films received was a good indicator of the types of Black films the Academy favors. All of these films appeal to a more historical look at race and (not so) subtly imply and reinforce the idea that racial issues and race itself are in the past and not the present. These films focus on the issues the Black community faces in relation to white people and racism rather than on the issues within the Black community between Black people, thus maintaining a constant focus on comparison and providing a white perspective to Black issues. The main purpose of historical films is to promote awareness of events, people, and issues of the past in hopes of drawing connections to the present. In that regard, these films are geared towards a white audience to raise awareness about issues that Black people face in the past and present. Although this emphasis on history promotes a reminder not to repeat the past, these historical films actually mask current day issues with illusions of enormous progress, by assuaging white guilt. Even a film like The Color Purple (1985) with a predominantly Black cast still fully incorporates remnants of slavery and blatant southern racism.
A number of Black films were biopics focused on individuals in the entertainment and sports industries. These films are mostly still set in the past but also promote more negative stereotypes about Black people. Sports and entertainment are not necessarily bad professions, but these types of films promote the negative stereotype that Black people can not be successful in areas other than those that focus on “natural” talent and the body. Dreamgirls (2006) with eight nominations and Ray (2004) with six were amongst the ten Black films with the most nominations, and What’s Got to Do With It (1993), and The Bodyguard (1992) (See Appendix A) were further down with two nominations each. These films all show the journey of successful musicians (fictional and nonfictional), but with that success, they show the morally corrupt activities that ensued along that road. Although the characters were successful, their success was still tainted by negative behavior, and therefore, still promoted a slightly negative image of the Black community.
In relation to sports, both Ali (2001) and The Blind Side (2009) received two nominations as well; however, The Blind Side (2009) was nominated for Best Picture, which made me want to look more closely at the subject matter of these films. Both films focus on sports—boxing in Ali (2001) and boxing and football in The Blind Side (2009)—and their main characters’ success as athletes. Muhammad Ali has always been a symbol of Black power not only because of his physical prowess, but because of his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement by refusing to go the Vietnam War. The Blind Side (2009) tells the story of a poor uneducated Black boy, Michael Oher, who is taken in and saved by a white savior, Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock). The film itself was not nominated for any awards (the only nomination was for Bullock). Both of Ali’s (2001) nominations were for actors Will Smith and Jon Voight, which means that neither of these films received accolades outside of acting, and yet, The Blind Side (2009) was nominated for Best Picture. In comparing these two films, it is apparent that the Academy favors films that appeal to a white audience and that address racial issues from a white perspective.
The majority of the Black films nominated are historical narratives and biopics set in the past and the few films that take place in the present promote negative stereotypes. The negative stereotypes in these films reinforce ideas and opinions held by the white majority. Films like American Gangster(2007), Hustle and Flow (2005) (which is about the music industry), Monster’s Ball (2001),and Training Day (2001) depict gruesome and corrupt individuals. Yet, these films are praised by the Academy. Monster’s Ball (2001) and Training Day (2001) stand out specifically because Halle Berry and Denzel Washington received nominations for Best Lead Actress/ Actor and won in the same year. Both of their wins were significant because Halle Berry winning for Monster’s Ball (2001) was the first time a Black woman won for Best Lead Actress. Training Day (2001) was Washington’s first win for Best Lead Actor. Most importantly, this was the first time a Black actress and actor won for lead roles in the same year.
Training Day (2001) was Washington’s 3rd nomination for Lead Actor, the first being Malcolm X (1992) and the second for The Hurricane (1999), which are both historical biopics. Malcolm X was a well-known Civil Rights activist who was characterized by his militant ideologies, particularly, in comparison to the methods of Martin Luther King Jr. In The Hurricane (1999), he played Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who was a boxer wrongly convicted of triple homicide by racist, corrupt police officers. Although both films work towards assuaging white guilt, they also promote a slightly more negative view of white people. In Malcolm X (1992), a historical biopic, Malcolm X’s more militant beliefs provides a less positive outlook on Civil Rights, a factor that sets this film apart from most Civil Rights films. They both depict racism, but by showing the racism in direct comparison to more outspoken resistance, it manages to make white people seem more at fault. Washington did not win for either of these roles, but he won for Training Day (2001). He did not win when he was a civil rights activist or a wrongly convicted man fighting the judicial system, but he won when he played a corrupt narcotics cop in the LAPD. Even though this was a different type of role from the types Washington usually plays, it is also obvious that the Academy has a particular perspective when it comes to Black films.
Examining this situation also shows the Academy’s politics. Even though nominations are a great achievement, the wins tell you even more about the thought process. Out of the eighteen Black films nominated for Best Picture (four of those films only contain a Black supporting character), only three have actually won: 12 Years A Slave (2013), Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and Crash (2005). So although, Washington received two previous nominations for more positive portrayals of Black people, the film he won for was a negative portrayal. Although eighteen Black films were nominated, only three films won for Best Picture, two of which were historical narratives. Whether purposely or unintentionally, the Academy obviously values Black films that provide either historical narrative, where Black people are oppressed, or films that promote current negative stereotypes that reinforce the white majority’s view of Black people in America.
The critical analysis of films is important because they provide opinions from professional filmmakers and intellectuals, but the main goal of films is to speak to the audience. The audience receives the messages that the filmmaker is trying to portray and, thus, holds an enormous amount of power in deciding the success of a film. Two good indicators of audience approval are box office numbers and audience ratings. At the end of the day, if the audience does not like it, nothing else matters. While critics technically are part of the audience, their knowledge of the film industry and the work that is put into these films affects the way they think about the film. The average move goer does not have that insider knowledge, so they react purely to what is presented to them. In order to quantify how much the audience liked the film, I looked at which Black films had the highest box office gross numbers. Since gross numbers depend on variable factors of distribution and ticket prices, I also used ratings from Rotten Tomatoes (a popular critic website) to cross-reference and find the films with the best overall audience rating.
Amongst the top ten highest grossing Black films (domestically), seven of them feature Will Smith (See Appendix B). This is where the issue of blind casting really affected my results. None of these films use Will Smith’s race as an essential piece of his character. If it does not affect the role, should the film really be characterized as a Black film? While I decided to include these results in the planning stages of my research, the skewing presence of these films raises questions about the helpfulness and usefulness of blind casting. I feel as though blind casting is supposed to eliminate discrimination; however, by not acknowledging the character’s race and the issues and dynamics that come along with race, it has more of a negative impact on overall social views on race. These films are also predominantly science fiction and action films. Since science fiction usually focuses on fictional/non-realistic places and situations, the need for a backstory that addresses realistic issues and interactions based on the way our modern society works are less necessary and as a result, race is less relevant. However the ability for these studios to note their inclusion of minority leads suggests that they are using the fact that Will Smith is black to boost their images surrounding the image of diversity without actually acknowledging that he is Black cinematically.
Not only were a lot of these movies comedies—they were buddy films specifically. Buddy films typically involve two different types of people working together to go on an adventure or solve a problem. They are usually a mixture of comedy and action, with the comedy derived from the differences between the characters, including cultural, personality, or different upbringings. Every film in the Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour, and Men in Black franchises appears on the list of high grossing Black films, and they all have characters that differ in both race and personality. The mixture of two different kinds of characters, as well as two genres, makes these films accessible to many different audiences. They are usually popular at the box office because they attract huge and diverse audiences. Their ability to do so allows these films to be highly popular and to turn into franchises. Each of these films made over three hundred million dollars worldwide and had over 60% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, yet they received minimal nominations and were not nominated for Best Picture. This obvious preference in genre when it comes to Best Picture indicates that perhaps comedies and other genres should have their own separate categories in the way that documentaries and animated films do.
To decrease the aforementioned bias in relation to types of films recognized by the Oscars, the audience’s opinion should be more important in judging the success of a film, even if the professional/critic opinions historically hold more weightwhen it comes to award nominations. To determine which popular Black films were the most controversial, I looked at which high grossing films had the biggest difference between critic ratings and audience ratings according to Rotten Tomatoes. One of the most controversial films was John Q (2002) featuring Denzel Washington. John Q (2002) received a 23% critic rating, and a 78% audience rating. This means that only 23% of critics gave the film a positive rating and 78% of audience members gave it positive ratings. This difference of 55% prompted me to look at the general consensus of both parties. The negative critic ratings overall said that the film was preachy and that the screenplay was convoluted, but that Washington’s performance was good. The audience said that they thought the story was realistic and brought up some really good issues and that Washington gave a great performance. So both parties unanimously agreed upon the high quality of Washington’s performance, but again, he played a more radical man who took power into his own hands against the healthcare system and, as a result, did not receive any nominations from the Academy. The critics focused more on the portrayal of the message than the actual message. Since critics are professionals and intellectuals, they tend to focus on the “how” rather than the “what.” The subject matter in the movie was more radical and called out injustices within our government and touched on a plethora of social issues, but critics focused on how those ideas were presented—whereas the audience reviews mainly focused on the subject matter and not the presentation of the information. The huge difference between audience and critic ratings and the lack of Academy nominations demonstrates that this particular subject matter was controversial and was not as appealing to professional audiences, who also happened to be primarily white. Whether that’s a result of their assessment on the quality of the film production or issues with the films subject matter, this drastic difference calls attention to some fundamental issues in the way the critics and specifically the Academy rate these films. Looking at the films with the highest difference between critic and audience ratings shows that several of them were from the same director: Tyler Perry. Perry’s films are probably the most controversial Black films. Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005) had a difference of 71%, Madea’s Family Reunion (2006) had a 59% difference, Madea Goes to Jail (2009) had a 41% difference, and Why Did I Get Married (2007) had a 32% difference (See Appendix C). Perry’s films are usually a mixture of drama and comedy, and the casts are almost always entirely Black. The biggest criticism across the board is Perry’s portrayal of a rambunctious older woman named Madea. Perry’s films, in general, present a mixture of negative and positive images of the Black community, but Madea mainly embodies this conflict. She is very outspoken and borderline obnoxious, but she also provides wise advice to younger characters in the films. Perry’s subject matter covers modern day issues in the Black community, as well as general relationship issues. His comedic material stems from stereotypes and common experiences in the Black community with whiteness and uses race relations as a common source of humor as well. White people, if they do appear, are usually not seen in a favorable light. The mixture of negative and positive images makes his films more realistic and appealing to Black audiences. His use of common experiences that occur in areas where Black people are the majority tends to isolate white audiences. The drastic difference between critic and audience ratings speaks to the subject matter and intended audience. Comedy generally requires a general amount of common knowledge. Perry’s use of all Black casts and humor that critiques society, particularly the white majority, implies that his films are intended for Black audiences, even though films with all white casts are rarely identified as being intended for white audiences. “White culture” is seen as universal, whereas “Black culture” is seen as specific and exclusionary. Even though there are plenty of comedies with no Black people, those films are seen as universal for all audiences. If a cast is entirely Black, it is seen as exclusion and deters white majority viewers from seeing the film. Tyler Perry’s films are very specifically intended and geared towards Black audiences, but the resistance to his films and other films with all Black casts by white audiences creates an interesting contrast to the acceptance of films with all white casts. None of Perry’s films have ever been nominated for an Academy Award despite the popularity of his films. This is because his films do not cater to the majority of the population of the Academy. His approach to Black people as normal people with real issues is off-putting because it is not framed in a historical context, and it does not project a solely negative image of Black people. It does not provide a clear way for the white majority to connect with the film without identifying with the Black characters and that causes lack in the overall understanding of Perry’s films.
As racial awareness in relation to popular culture is occurring within social media and Internet culture, the pressure for media industry to diversify has been increasing. The huge lack of diversity within the Academy makes it difficult to understand the films that provide perspectives outside of the old, white, male perspective and society. By having an entire body of people from similar backgrounds and generation, it creates a very narrow understanding of a much larger picture, and society is becoming more and more aware of this. For several years now, social media has exploded over the whiteness of the Academy, each year declaring the Oscars as “the whitest Oscars to date.” Even the current president of the Academy acknowledged its diversity problem and plans to invite a more diverse group of individuals to the academy. However, this feels like a token remedy to a larger systemic problem—a cosmetic change to disguise a deeply engrained history of exclusion. My research brings light to these systemic issues and attempts to identify specific pieces of this underlying (possibly subconscious) thought process by looking at the clear inconsistencies between Oscar nominated films and popular, high-grossing Black films.
The Academy’s small-mindedness has made it difficult for powerful, positive, and present images of Black culture to receive well-deserved accolades and have promoted a very unhealthy picture of Black people in cinema. Unless the Academy changes its ways, more films that mean a lot to underrepresented groups will continue to go unrecognized
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Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Jan. 2001. Web. July 2015.