Sex and silence: What this awards season tells us about Hollywood
People involved with Indie Spirits seemed unsure how to handle the protest chant, which continued until the end of the show and could be heard from the stage and on the YouTube live stream of the concert. Jim Gaffigan, the show’s host, became upset when the commotion began, and lost his train of thought. Later, comedian Jimmy O Yang likened it to harassment. Most of the presenters and winners completely ignored the protest, even though the chant highlighted every word they said.
Outside, a shuttle bus was sent to drive in front of the protesters in a weak attempt to block the noise. When I went to investigate, a crowd of independent film insiders had also gathered, observing protesters marching on the other side of the event’s barricades. “The irony is that most people in that tent agree with them,” one viewer said.
If it’s true that a ceasefire is desired by Hollywood’s usually outspoken creative class, you wouldn’t know it by listening to their speeches this awards season. After two years of recognizing the war in Ukraine at almost every awards ceremony, the conflict between Israel and Hamas was not mentioned at most ceremonies. “It’s too risky,” one studio executive told me after the Independent Spirit Awards protest. “People are worried about their careers.”
Cognitive dissonance is always required when global atrocities occur during a glamorous awards season. There’s even a Best Picture nominee for this kind of selective thinking: “Zone of Interest,” in which a well-to-do Nazi couple rejoices in their good fortune while living next door to the Auschwitz concentration camp. After taking home one of the film’s three BAFTA Awards earlier this month in London, producer James Wilson admitted those blinders, becoming one of the few performers this season to directly mention the current situation.
“A friend wrote to me after watching the movie the other day that he couldn’t stop thinking about the walls we build in our lives and behind which we choose not to look,” Wilson said in his speech. “These walls are not new, either before, during or since the Holocaust, and it seems stark now that we should care about the killing of innocents in Gaza or Yemen in the same way we think about the killing of innocents in Mariupol or in Israel. Thank you for your appreciation for a film that asks us to think In those spaces.
Although some may think that an awards ceremony is not a place for political discourse, a great film has the power to change the way we see the world; For this reason, filmmaking can only be political. I’m sure executives at ABC, the network that broadcasts the Oscars, would prefer that participants remain silent on these issues, for fear of audience backlash or disinterest. But if “The Zone of Interest” wins the Oscar for Best International Picture next month, as most critics believe, I wonder what we might hear.
