Everything is not awesome. Everything is not cool. The list of Oscar nominations are out, and among all of the congratulatory tweets and Dick Poop jokes, we have the snubs. Lots of people will be talking about the acting and directing snubs for Selma, but a world-building film is notably missing from the list: The Lego Movie. Congrats to our nominees for Animated Feature Film. — The Academy (@TheAcademy) January 15, 2015 Sure, “Everything Is Awesome” got the nomination for Best Original Song, but where is the nomination for Best Animated Feature? Naturally, people are upset about it. They’re not exactly sure why it got snubbed, but they’ve gone to Twitter to vent about it. Lego Movie wasn’t nominated for best animated film? — Steve Kovach (@stevekovach) January 15, 2015 Maybe with the LEGO Movie snub, Academy found it distasteful to nominate a movie about commercial toys. Except, wait, Toy Story. — Omar L. Gallaga (@omarg) January 15, 2015
Don’t worry guys, the Academy nominated LEGO Movie for Best Animated Feature. It’s just glued to their back & they’ll notice in 2 seconds… — @midnight (@midnight) January 15, 2015 Today I learned that apparently other movies came out this year besides LEGO Movie. — Ryan Broderick (@broderick) January 15, 2015 The Lego movie was soooooo good. I would have nominated it for Best Picture. — Rainbow Rowell (@rainbowrowell) January 15, 2015 This morning’s shocking snub of The Lego Movie proves what I’ve always known about the Academy. They’re totally Playmobil people. — Paul Scheer (@paulscheer) January 15, 2015 — pilot (@pilotbacon) January 15, 2015 The Lego Movie lost the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film to How to Train Your Dragon 2 on Sunday, but at least it was nominated. And although the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards are voted on by different committees, many of the nominations overlap. Someone, however, had an even better idea.
The Lego Movie didn’t get nominated, but it’s The Lego Movie. Surely someone could put those Lego to use, right? to be fair the lego movie can just build an oscar for itself — mulder, it’s me (@pilotbacon) January 15, 2015 Did Philip Lord, one of The Lego Movie’s directors, see that suggestion on Twitter before following through on that tweet? — philip lord (@philiplord) January 15, 2015 This is not a tragedy. Congrats to incredible crew and cast of The Lego Movie, who made a classic. Thanks all for the outpouring of love for the LEGO Movie today. We didn’t make it for awards, we made it to be a trending topic on Twitter — Chris Miller (@chrizmillr) January 15, 2015 Lord and Miller may not have an Oscar nomination under their belt, but after The Lego Movie made more than $257 million domestically at the box office (with sequels on the way), they’re rolling in the blocks and dough. Screengrab via Warner Bros. Pictures/YouTube
Okay, so the Oscar nominations came out this morning, and all of the acting categories feature white nominees, and all the Best Picture nominees are stories about dudes. As you can imagine, the Problem Internet was not pleased with this development. We go right to the takes!Someone is really crying about the fucking Oscar nominations! Now, I am a white dude (this may shock you), and so I am the supposed beneficiary of all this white-male empty-award-show privilege. In fact, I'm disappointed Snowpiercer didn't get nominated for anything, because that movie is literally white all over. But this is overdoing it. No one should cry about anything related to the Oscars. Yes, Hollywood is still an old-boys club, and could use plenty more diversity in both content and personnel, but if you're expecting the Oscars to solve all this, you desperately need a better game plan. Viewing systemic industry problems through the prism of which shitty actors get meaningless award nominations will drive you out of your mind.
Besides, as stupid and useless as the Oscars are, they're even WORSE when they're putting on a grand display of head-patting and positioning the ceremony as some kind of grand benchmark for societal progress. Please, God, no more Julia Roberts loving her life or speeches from George Clooney about being proud of his community. Don't put that in anyone's head. If you think that the unrelenting whiteness of this year's Oscar nominations are meaningful in this regard, then you also have to suppose that last year's Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress victories for 12 Years a Slave (both deserved) somehow signaled a sea change in the institutional rigidity of Hollywood, which of course they didn't. You're investing in a cosmetic solution to a deeply rooted problem … a solution that has already proven ineffective. And honestly, I think a lot of these people are casting down shame upon nominations because it's a nice thing to do publicly. LOOK HOW MUCH I CARE ABOUT THIS! It's no different than when the Oscars congratulate themselves and coat themselves in liberal-do-gooder varnish for doling out a statue to the first female Best Director or whatnot.
Look at how we opened the hatch on our glass ceiling for this person! You should encourage us to do this more! The Atlantic has a story about Selma possibly getting snubbed by the Oscars because they didn't send out screener DVDs of the film. (Disclosure: I am a member of the WGA and didn't get a screener of the movie; I also didn't vote for any awards of any kind, because I'm lazy and indifferent and just like watching free movies.) That makes more sense than every voter suddenly not liking well-received movies about black people. And if Selma had been nominated for every last prize and won, then the Oscars probably just would've been accused of rewarding any film that looks potentially critic-proof anyway. These awards are deeply meaningless. The only reason people in Hollywood give a shit about them is because a) money and b) everyone wants to puff up each other's resume, which means over-inflating the value of an award so that all your colleagues and all the LITTLE PEOPLE you work with (FX artists, costumers, etc.) get their little moment of recognition.
Oh, how they crave recognition. As if the sound-effects industry would wither and die if they didn't hand out one forgettable award on national TV every March. If you're relying on the Oscars to be an accurate barometer of progress—hell, if you're just hoping they dish out awards to movies that aren't fucking terrible—you better be ready for a lot of disappointment in life. If THIS reduces you to tears, you're probably not gonna have the resolve to set about finding a real solution to this problem. "This is a devastating morning. I am in tears and am exasperated at my grocery store being out of nine-grain bread. So out of touch with the world!" There's probably some deeper issue at play, anyway. Still Alice didn't get nominated for Best Picture, and why does Mom drink?") You're also conveniently ignoring a lot of the hard-earned progress that HAS been made in Hollywood, with Shonda Rhimes lording over an entire bloc of programming, more gay characters on more TV shows, and several women—Fey, Wiig, Schumer, McCarthy, etc.—dominating the comedy world as we speak.