Are The Oscar Films Too Political This Year?

Bhakti Shringarpure and Madhuri Sastry host a pre-Oscars film club. They admit that there have been lots of surprises in the mainstream blockbuster film industry this year. The discussion focused on films about revolution (One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent and Bugonia), the hyper-emphasis on masculinity and paternity despite some women-centered films (Hamnet and Sentimental Value), what Marty Supreme really stands for, and the sheer power of Sinners. Palestine is at the movies with one nomination for The Voice of Hind Rajab the same year as 4000 film workers have signed a pledge to boycott Israeli film institutions that are complicit in genocide in Palestine. Iran’s Jafar Panahi also has a nominated for his social-realist revenge drama It Was Just An Accident at a moment when US and Israel are devastating the country with strikes. How will the Oscars unfold? Who will win? What do these films and the awards say about our cultural moment at a time when the world is in flux?