Carey Mulligan Suggests Oscar Voters Need to Prove They’ve Seen the Movies

Authored by variety.com and submitted by Sisiwakanamaru

Carey Mulligan has made a conscious decision in recent years to collaborate with female directors, from Sarah Gavron (“Suffragette”) to Dee Rees (“Mudbound”). On Saturday night at the Sundance Film Festival, she’ll unveil “Promising Young Woman,” a thriller written and directed by Emerald Fennell, about a heroine out for revenge after experiencing a traumatic abuse.

“I’d never read anything like it,” Mulligan said during an interview at the Variety Studio at Sundance. “Reading it for the first time, sort of made me nervous in a really good way, in a way that makes me excited to be part of something.”

Fennell served as the showrunner for the second season of “Killing Eve,” and she’s making her debut as a movie director with “Promising Young Woman.”

Mulligan was then asked about this year’s Academy Awards, which once again nominated five men in the best director category despite a banner year for films made by women.

“I don’t think you can watch those films and not think they deserve recognition,” Mulligan said. “I think they need to be watched. I wonder if the system works in terms of getting sent 100 screeners. Maybe you shouldn’t be allowed to vote unless you can prove you’ve seen every single one. There should be a test. The films that did get left out are indisputably brilliant.”

Mulligan elaborated: “I’m talking about ‘Hustlers,’ ‘Little Women’ and ‘The Farewell.’ I feel like the fact that they are getting made is progress. But it’s all baby steps.”

“Little Women” received six Oscar nominations, but Greta Gerwig wasn’t recognized in the best director category. “Hustlers,” made by Lorene Scafaria, and “The Farewell,” from Lulu Wang, were both completely shut out of the Academy Awards. Many pundits had thought that Jennifer Lopez (who stars in “Hustlers”) and Awkwafina (who won a Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy for “The Farewell’) were likely locks for acting nominations.

It’s true that Oscar consultants will often say, privately, that the roughly 10,000 members who vote on the Academy Awards don’t have time to sit through more than a handful of movies before ballots are due in January.

Fennell said that she believes that awards voters prioritize movies based on subject matters that feel familiar.

“The truth of it is getting sent 100 screeners,” Fennell said. “The Academy and, I suppose, all of these institutions have members who are incredibly busy. It’s difficult to make sure people have seen everything and necessarily the way humans are, they prioritize things they are comfortable with or they think they’ll like. They’ll go with the established filmmakers.”

“Promising Young Woman” opens in theaters on April 17 from Focus Features.

shoot2die on January 26th, 2020 at 02:31 UTC »

Alec Baldwin said on Howard Stern recently that he knew a producer who controlled a block of voters. Old timers who were in The Academy but hadn't been in the movie business for decades. Like some guy who was script supervisor on Psycho (1960) types. And they would call up the producer and say "I can't watch all these movies, which ones look good?". And the producer would tell them what to vote for.

needs-more-sleep on January 26th, 2020 at 01:25 UTC »

Animation is probably one of the most frustrating categories sometimes. If you look at their reasoning for why they voted a certain way, it's usually "my kid made me watch it, this is the only one I saw"

Sisiwakanamaru on January 26th, 2020 at 00:24 UTC »

Emerald Fennell said that she believes that awards voters prioritize movies based on subject matters that feel familiar.

“The truth of it is getting sent 100 screeners,” Fennell said. “The Academy and, I suppose, all of these institutions have members who are incredibly busy. It’s difficult to make sure people have seen everything and necessarily the way humans are, they prioritize things they are comfortable with or they think they’ll like. They’ll go with the established filmmakers.”

She got a point in this one.