Alfonso Cuarón
Photo: Eric Ray Davidson
Gravity and Cuarón receive some much-deserved attention, but no other Latinos appear on the list. Again.
It’s odd: 2013 was actually a pretty good year for Latinos and Latino-themed films on the big screen–better by far than 2012. There were Latinos taking major parts in more than sixty films released last year, from blockbusters to Star Trek Into Darkness, Pacific Rim, and Fast and Furious 6 to serious and thoughtful films like Fruitvale Station and Short Term 12, to animated features like Planes, Despicable Me 2 and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, to crazy action pictures like Machete Kills to psychological thrillers like Trance to risky independents that paid off like Spring Breakers and Inside Llewyn Davis. There were even major releases from major Latino directors like Guillermo del Toro and Pedro Almodóvar, Latinos starring in new releases from Danny Boyle and Neil Blomkamp (among many others), as well as films from new and up-and-coming directors like Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead), Liz W. Garcia (The Lifeguard) and Eduardo Sanchez (V/H/S 2). And none of them–none of them–were nominated by the MPAAS for an Academy Award this year.
Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in Gravity
Congratulations go, of course, to Alfonso Cuarón for his three nominations, including Best Motion Picture, Achievement in Direction, and Achievement in Film Editing, and to Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubeski for his newest nomination for Achievement in Cinematography for Gravity as well. But it’s hard to look at this list and not notice the complete absence of Latino talent in any of the performance categories. Not a single name. Not one.
Emmanuel Lubezki
Photo: Angela María Ortíz S.
Probably most notable in its absence is a nomination for Oscar Isaac for Inside Llewyn Davis, and you have to wonder about the passing over of some remarkable films like Fruitvale Station and Spring Breakers for some kind of recognition as well. And then there’s the puzzle of Instructions Not Included. The most financially successful foreign language film in recent years (or ever) made quite a splash when it was released in the U.S. last year, but didn’t make the Oscar Nom cut for Best Foreign Language Film–in fact, no Spanish language film did.
Let’s not kid ourselves: the Oscars have never been a beacon of diversity–not for people of color, the disabled, or the small film struggling to make a mark. But it’s particularly painful to be reminded of that sad reality in a year with so many Latinos working in so many films–good, bad, and indifferent, financially successful and disastrous. It would be wonderful if the Academy could rethink their approach to honoring film and finally move it away from what is becoming an increasingly embarrassing popularity contest for the rich and powerful. And really: nothing more.
