[Opinion] Oscar's Anti-Trump Season 2

Focusing on Immigrants and Social Minorities
Oscars Resist Trump's Second Term
Embracing Cultural Diversity

The Academy Awards, which will turn 100 in three years, were dull and boring. For a long time, the fixed perspective determined the scope of cinematic imagination, and the critical spirit never exceeded a certain limit. Therefore, raising objections to the Oscars was meaningless?not because the golden authority of the Oscar trophy was absolute, but quite the opposite. Although there were occasional gestures recognizing diversity with surprising choices once every decade, the essence rarely changed.

This Academy declared a definite transformation starting in 2017, when Trump first took office as the U.S. president. The 89th Academy Awards seemed like a platform to condemn the newly inaugurated Trump administration. Actors appeared on the red carpet wearing blue ribbons from the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), opposing anti-immigration policies. The Best Picture winner, Moonlight, followed a Black boy’s journey to discover his sexual identity, addressing racial issues and LGBTQ+ topics. Since then, Oscar’s choices have leaned toward the minor rather than the major. The Best Picture awards went to The Shape of Water (2018), a fairy-tale-like film about discrimination and love among social minorities, and Green Book (2019), a small film dealing with racial issues. In 2020, director Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite made Oscar history as the first film to win Best Picture in a language other than English.

The 97th Academy Awards, which began with Trump’s second term, carried significant meaning. “My grandmother came to the U.S. in 1961, and I am proud to have grown up under immigrant parents with dreams and diligence. I am the first Dominican actor to win an Oscar, but I will not be the last,” said Joe Saldana in his acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor for the film Emilia Perez.

Even the selection of the 10 Best Picture nominees was unusual. From Anora, which swept five major categories, to No Other Land, which won Best Feature Documentary, almost all carried anti-Trump messages. Director Sean Baker’s Anora tells the story of a woman born into an immigrant family who lives as a sex worker, focusing on socially vulnerable groups in an independent (diversity) film. Baker said, “Their stories have long shared life experiences with me, and I respect them.” He also expressed gratitude to the Oscars for recognizing his film, saying, “Independent films do not disappear.” Despite early opportunities to enter Hollywood, he insisted on making “small films.” His 2015 film Tangerine was made with only $100,000, and his breakthrough The Florida Project had a budget of just $2 million. If Hollywood is the “dream factory,” independent films are the “real labor” stained with tears and sweat. Sean Baker’s films vividly demonstrate that creative agony blooms more in poverty than in abundance.

Although Anora was the star of this year’s Oscars, before the results were announced, the spotlight was on Brutalist. A strong Best Picture contender, Brutalist depicted the life of an architect who escaped fascism and settled in the U.S. Brutalism is an architectural style popular from the 1950s to the 1970s, characterized by rough, coarse, and exposed concrete, revealing the essence of the materials. Director Brady Kove said, “Brutalist architecture, often disliked because it is hard to empathize with, reminds me of the immigrant experience,” and criticized, “Trump’s bias, obsessed with flashy, grand, and monumental urban architecture, resembles Hitler.”

Director Bong Joon-ho’s new film Mickey 17 is gaining worldwide box office success. Bong’s dystopian imagination unfolds humorously in this film, which features a dictator reminiscent of Trump. After surviving an assassination attempt, his rule becomes even more solidified. When asked if this part was a satire of Trump, Bong said, “The filming was completed long before that incident.” Mickey 17 was not nominated for Best Picture due to its release timing. It is already intriguing to wonder what decision next year’s Academy voters will make regarding Bong’s film, which represents the pinnacle of the Oscar’s transformation.