{"id":4859,"date":"2016-02-29T00:07:38","date_gmt":"2016-02-28T23:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2016\/02\/29\/etienne-auge-de-oscars-zijn-bullshit\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:17","slug":"etienne-auge-de-oscars-zijn-bullshit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2016\/02\/29\/etienne-auge-de-oscars-zijn-bullshit\/","title":{"rendered":"Etienne Aug\u00e9: \u201cThe Oscars are bullshit\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRobert Couse-Baker<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

In a few hours\u2019 time, tout<\/em> Hollywood will be attending the event of the year: the Oscars. An event shrouded in controversy.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s just get it out of the way straight away, shall we? According to Etienne Aug\u00e9, an associate professor at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, the Oscars are a major farce. \u201cThe Oscars are not about the best films, but rather about the amount of money invested in marketing campaigns for those films. I watch an immense number of films, and believe me, the Oscar winners are nowhere near the best films. Rather they are the films that receive the greatest amount of financial backing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Absent stars<\/h3>

When this year\u2019s Oscar nominations were announced, a major debate ensured, as all the nominees turned out to be white. Stars such as Jada Pinkett Smith and director Spike Lee subsequently decided to boycott the awards ceremony, to protest the lack of recognition for Afro-American actors.<\/p>\n

As if that\u2019s the only thing that is wrong with the Oscars, Aug\u00e9 says indignantly. \u201cWhy is no one protesting the lack of nominations for Latin American or Asian actors? No one ever mentions them. And don\u2019t tell me that their turn will come, because that\u2019s complete bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n

What about women?<\/h3>

And while we are on the subject, we may as well have a look at Hollywood\u2019s largest minority: women. \u201cEven now, women are not considered fully fledged film makers. Female directors as a matter of course receive less money to make movies than their male counterparts, supposedly because women are not as strong as men. As if you need muscles to direct a movie. Things like that infuriate me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fine to try and change the Oscars, but the event merely exemplifies a more wide-spread problem in the United States,\u201d Aug\u00e9 laments. \u201cIt\u2019s fine trying to change the nominations, but even so, the fact remains that white men are calling the shots. It is their view of the world which is being disseminated through movies. Make no mistake, inequality is still the norm, not just in the United States, but in the Netherlands as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Equal opportunities<\/h3>

So by all means watch the Oscars gala if you like a bit of glamour and show, but don\u2019t do it to decide what the best films are, Aug\u00e9 recommends. \u201cBut by all means let\u2019s pay more attention to creating equal opportunities for everyone. Power must be divided. The idea of middle-aged white men holding all the power is completely obsolete.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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