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Search Results: Oscars

AUSTRALIA

The economic case for greater diversity in media
- Fatima Measham
- 05 August 2016
Perhaps what will ultimately convince media and entertainment companies that it is in their interest to be sincere about diversity is that there's money in it. A UCLA study found that in 2014, eight films that had diverse casts (out of 163) also had the highest median global revenues and returns on investment. In addition, TV shows with majority non-white casts rated extremely well, even among white households. This challenges conventions around what media consumers find appealing.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Great white filmmakers can't dismiss diversity
- Tim Kroenert
- 10 March 2016
6 Comments
When questioned about diversity in his films recently, Joel Coen replied: 'You don't sit down and say, "I'm going to write a story that involves four black people, three Jews, and a dog".' The answer is disingenuous at best. Filmmakers choose what stories to tell and how; with a few exceptions, the Coens tell stories about white men. Just as Quentin Tarantino ought to continue discussing the role violence and misogyny play in his films, the Coens should engage meaningfully with questions of diversity.
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MEDIA

#HollywoodSoMale
- Catherine Marshall
- 03 March 2016
7 Comments
Chris Rock's hosting of the Academy Awards was a win-win culmination of the #OscarsSoWhite campaign in which no actual person had to take the blame. Instead, a faceless institution named 'Hollywood' was rapped over the knuckles for its racism while the flesh-and-blood white faces that represented it could get on with the business of congratulating themselves. While all this mollification was going on, there was another, gargantuan prejudice saturating the air these celebrities were breathing.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Racist Oscars need to lift their game
- Tim Kroenert
- 21 January 2016
2 Comments
It's less than a year since we lamented the lack of non-white faces among 2015's Oscar nominees. This year the situation is even grimmer, with not one non-white face among 20 nominees for acting awards, despite a raft of clear contenders. It is ironic, because at first glance, concepts of empowerment and inclusion seem to have been at the forefront of Academy members' minds. The theme of bringing marginalised or oppressed groups into the centre, or of restoring power and dignity to vulnerable individuals from whom it has been stripped, run through many of this year's nominated films.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Rock star Streep and the uphill battle for Hollywood diversity
- Tim Kroenert
- 27 August 2015
There's a running gag that in Hollywood there are few roles for women over a certain age, unless you are Meryl Streep. Of course it isn't really a joke, if you consider the consistently dire statistics regarding gender, age and race diversity in mainstream American films. Whatever you make of this deplorable inequality, there can be little doubt that Streep is an actor singularly dedicated to her craft, who works hard and throws herself with aplomb into the wide range of roles that come her way.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Missing girls expose town's threadbare soul
- Tim Kroenert
- 11 June 2015
World-weary detectives Juan and Pedro arrive in an agrarian township on Spain's Guadalquivir Marshes to investigate the disappearance of two teenage sisters. But their investigation among the town's various innocents, eccentrics and reprobates uncovers a much larger, sinister burr within the very soul of the town. The smell of fascism lingers thickly in the air.
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MEDIA

Why Selma needs no Oscars
- Fatima Measham
- 20 February 2015
13 Comments
It is hard to escape the impression that even in 2015 the only black characters that the American film industry can reward are maids, slaves or dysfunctional urban archetypes, in stories where there is an identifiable white saviour. Any triumphs are of the spirit, of personal fortitude, nothing that compels social responsibility, invokes political will or even a sense of historical reckoning.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

How an advertiser toppled a dictator
- Tim Kroenert
- 18 April 2013
Pinochet's supporters are, with good reason, banking on the populace's fear and willingness to maintain the status quo. Enter brash young advertising executive René Saavedra. His rusted-on socialist colleagues are at first aghast but gradually persuaded by his conviction that rather than wallowing in negativity, they should be selling optimism.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Oscar-winning racism in Hollywood's mixed bag
- Tim Kroenert
- 28 February 2013
After cataloguing the ways in which the film belittles and marginalises the experiences of black slaves, Williams laments the fact that such marginalisation continues to exist seemingly unnoticed in mainstream popular culture. The Oscar awarded to Django Unchained is the epitome of popular culture 'not noticing'.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Separating art from war in Iran
- William Gourlay
- 26 April 2012
3 Comments
Sabre rattling, both by the Iranian leadership and by Western politicians and pundits, dominates the headlines and steers public discourse about Iran. A recent film, and a current art exhibition, remind us of the country's 'rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics'.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Hilary Clinton and Hollywood's gender war
- Ruby Hamad
- 04 March 2010
3 Comments
Remember the man who yelled 'iron my shirt!' at Hillary Clinton? No doubt Clinton knows the problems women face in their fight to be taken seriously in the workplace. Acclaimed The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow has similarly found that male peers seem more interested in her body than her body of work.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Getting high on war
- Tim Kroenert
- 25 February 2010
1 Comment
Staff Sergeant William James is responsible for disarming bombs laid by insurgents in the sandy streets of Baghdad. For him, the stress of the job is a veritable amphetamine, and he's well and truly hooked.
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Search Results: Oscars