This year’s award season has shown real diversity when it comes to the nominations, but does it have anything to do with the ongoing pandemic?
A big part of this inclusion of diversity is highly influenced by the impact of coronavirus, as the closure of cinemas and delay in the releases of films and film festivals as a whole has created a huge hit on the film industry.
This crisis has produced the silver lining that the space that would have been taken up by those “big” films has now been given to independent indie films that may have otherwise never seen the light of day. This might impact the future of the industry, giving more chances to films that never before would have been considered for awards.
Autumn marks the award season with successful summer hits being announced alongside potential award-winners at film festivals in Venice, Toronto, Telluride, New York, and London. This year, the awards have started late with The Oscars taking place in April. Nobody had any clue as to what the awards would look like this year. One of the pleasant surprises which have appeared is the amount of diversity from the nominee line-up with two-thirds of the nominees in the acting categories coming from ethnic minority backgrounds. This is a much better turnout than the awards last year which had predominantly only white people nominated. The award shows received a lot of backlash from this, which may have prompted some of the change this year.
In regard to the 2021 film awards season, the main question is, has the backlash from last year prompted this diversity, or is it due to the coronavirus pandemic? We will have to wait and find out on April, 26 when The Oscars are presented.
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By Ellie Moylan
Feature image: Variety.com