After the Oscar nominations were announced, a lot of people talked about the Academy completely ignoring Jordan Peele’s Nope. The Academy wasn’t alone – Nope didn’t get any Golden Globe, BAFTA or SAG nominations either, which led me to believe in two separate theories: one, the studio didn’t put any money into an awards season campaign for Nope and two, the Academy simply loves to ignore “weird” directors, offbeat directors and (even more specifically) Black directors with a very specific vision, a vision which isn’t “historical slave/Black suffering movie.”
There’s a larger problem too, which is the Academy’s historic distaste for horror films. Not only was Nope ignored, but less shockingly, the Academy ignored Pearl, the Ti West horror film which was wildly popular in 2022. Mia Goth starred in Pearl and she had some comments about the Academy’s dislike of horror.
Mia Goth is calling out the Academy for not recognizing horror movies. On Wednesday, the actress — who recently starred in Ti West’s slasher, Pearl — commented on the Academy’s lack of recognition for horror films while promoting her latest scary flick, Infinity Pool, with Alexander Skarsgård at the Sundance Film Festival.
“I think that it’s very political,” Goth told Jake Hamilton of “Jake’s Takes” when asked her opinion on why she thinks the Academy generally shuts out horror movies from award nominations.
“It’s not entirely based on the quality of a project per se. There’s a lot going on there and a lot of cooks in the kitchen when it comes to nominations,” Goth said. “Maybe I shouldn’t say that, but I think that’s true. I think a lot of people know that.”
“A change is necessary,” Goth, 29, added. “A shift should take place if they wanted to engage with the wider public. I think it would be of benefit, really, [to nominate horror movies].”
There are some clever horror films and there are auteurs making horror films, Jordan Peele and Ari Aster among them. The Academy would point to Silence of the Lambs winning Best Picture (more than thirty years ago) or Peele winning Original Screenplay for Get Out. But those are the exceptions, not the rule. What’s bizarre is that even if the Academy finds it “distasteful” to nominate Nope for Best Picture, the film really should have gotten a slew of nominations in the technical categories, for Art Direction and (I would argue) Cinematography.
I’m including the clip of Mia Goth talking about this. Everyone on Twitter was like “wait, that’s her real voice??” Yes. She’s British and she sounds like a ghost who haunts the nursery in a Gothic castle.
Mia Goth about the fact that horror genre is always ignored and overlooked by the Academy. pic.twitter.com/TqtigoJYRP
— Mia Goth Updates (@miagothupdate) January 25, 2023
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 15: Mia Goth attends the 2nd Annual Academy Museum Gala at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on October 15, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.,Image: 731156299, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Mia Goth, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 15: Mia Goth attends the 2nd Annual Academy Museum Gala at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on October 15, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.,Image: 731156335, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Mia Goth, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – OCTOBER 15: Mia Goth arrives at the 2nd Annual Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Gala presented by Rolex held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on October 15, 2022 in Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 731264644, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Mia Goth, Credit line: Image Press Agency / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- Mia Goth arrives at the Academy’s 13th Governors Awards on Saturday, November 19, 2022, in Los Angeles.,Image: 739029683, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Editorial Use Only, Model Release: no, Credit line: Blaine Ohigashi / Avalon
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- Mia Goth arrives at the Academy’s 13th Governors Awards on Saturday, November 19, 2022, in Los Angeles.,Image: 739029704, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Editorial Use Only, Model Release: no, Credit line: Blaine Ohigashi / Avalon
“She sounds like a ghost who haunts the nursery of a Gothic castle.” This, THIS is what keeps me coming back. 😂😂😂
Lmao! Omg yes, I had no idea what she sounded like before.
Yes!! 😂
Even with that description, I was not at all prepared for reality. Her voice was not at all what I expected.
Hahaha…the absolute PERFECT description! She should maybe get into voice work…maybe Disney…
I also had no idea that was what she sounded like. I was unprepared.
Holy cow, she does! I expected it to be more whispery? It’s very childlike and innocent but still really eery.
The dude sitting next to her is giving big “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT COSIGN ME TO THIS CAREER-ENDING BLASPHEMY” vibes. Haha!
That’s Alexander Skarsgard right?
Indeed it is.
The dude?? You mean THEE Alexander Skarsgard?!
Sorry! Mornings! 😂
I did NOT expect her to sound like that!
Mia Goth is 100% correct. It IS political and the Academy and the industry like to favor certain artists and producers etc with these awards. They like to award youth – looking at Anne Hathaway and Jennifer Lawrence for the Oscars they won at the time they won them. The Oscars will not recognize someone who actually deserved it for the role they played unless there’s another driver to giving that specific artist the recognition. But like she said – this isn’t anything new and unless there are big changes this is what will continue to happen. It’s just that only now people – a lot of people – are realizing how truly fucked it is and are calling it out more and more and it is being publicized more and more.
OR they basically throw an award at an older actor/actress simply because “it’s their time to win” even if the role they win for isn’t really that great (cough*Julianne Moore*cough).
There are many, many issues with the Academy. They do not take horror films seriously as a genre. It took them until 1973 to nominate one for best picture, and have only nominated a handful since – with only one winning Best Picture. They have also turned against comedy as a genre overall, as well as more experimental films.
But none of this is new. It’s been going on for a long time, and it’s because its the same people making the decisions each year and the only films that stand a chance are the ones that are backed by studios that can afford finance the expensive campaigns. And as long as it stays that way, nothing will change.
I don’t think it’s fair to say that in about a century of awards, no Best Actress winner won it on merit alone. Vivian Leigh (for Streetcar), Frances McDormand, Kathy Bates and Liza Minnelli all absolutely deserved their wins based on their performances
Hillary Swank, although it is not a casting decision that would be made today, was riveting in Boys Don’t Cry and deserved that trophy on performance alone.
This one makes me sad. She and Shia Labeouf were on-and-off for years (and he was reportedly abusive), maybe even got married I thought? Then broke up and he went on to abuse FKA Twigs (plus god knows who else), she took him back and now has a baby with him. After reading what he did to FKA, I can’t believe any woman would touch him with a ten foot pole. I really hope she and her baby are safe but I feel ill whenever I come across either of them.
I mean, I believe people can change. But Shia needs years of intense therapy, anger management..possibly outpatient treatment for addiction…probably leave the toxicity of Hollywood forever.
He would just need SO much support to make a real, effective change and I’m not sure that we’ve seen that happen. So yeah, I do worry about Mia and her baby because I’m not convinced that Shia no longer poses a danger to the people around him.
She’s right. I will never understand some nominations and wins.
I just watched I don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore and I thought this is better than nearly anything I’ve seen in years. And I had never heard of it.
The Fabelmans? Let me just remove my head and roll it down a hill.
I Don’t Feel At Home… is a very entertaining, dark and funny little caper. Worth 5 of any Martin McDonagh film that I’ve seen. Saw Banshees last night and was appalled. If it were just a bad film it would be ok, but the whole world’s been suckered into thinking this is a delicious slice of Irish whimsy. It’s a paddywhack pantomime about two boring idiots. The story is dumb and the dialogue is lazy af; it makes little attempt to emulate the colloquialisms of rural Ireland. They talk about people being depressed and ‘judgy’, as if those words were in the vocabulary of those people. Barry Keoghan is great and so are the female cast but the two male leads are just fine and not really deserving of all the adulation. Films like Nope and Hereditary being completely ignored by the Oscars in favour of this kind of nonsense is a travesty.
Your description of Mia Goth’s voice is comedy gold ⭐️
I loved Get Out and Us, but Nope was not a good movie. I think there were some good ideas there, but it was not well-executed. So the academy absolute is political in the way that it favors certain films and people, and there is horror out there that is worthy of awards, but Nope was not one of those movies.
I agree. Get Out was amazing and Us was pretty solid but Nope didn’t deserve any oscars.
That’s pretty subjective (I personally think it was one of the best movies of 2022 and one of those movies that are made to be watched in a cinema).
But the sound design or cinematography would have deserved nominations no matter if you like the movie or not because both were absolutely outstanding.
Didn’t she play Harriet in the latest version of Emma? She sounds fine to me.
That is so true about the Academy and horror films. I didn’t care for “Silence Of The Lambs” but still recognize that it’s a fine film. But it’s also kind of a dark character study in addition to a horror movie, so the win wasn’t that surprising. It’s “Prestige Horror.” And it had Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster in it, which also helped it across the finish line.
Last year was such a welcome surprise, actually. “CODA” wasn’t a groundbreaking film but it was a very good watch with a nice blend of humor and heft and a beautiful sense of place. I was also happy when “Spotlight” won. A finely acted, perfectly paced story ripped from the headlines that celebrated meat-and-potatoes investigative journalism. Both are movies I would watch again in a heartbeat.
Awards Shows = Americas Funniest Videos. They’ve lost relevancy and their only real value is in helping my generation and older transition into the new era where view counts, watch time and viewer retention are the primary factors in determining success. If you want to advocate for fairness, require all of the services to calculate and expose that information publicly then you can report on it and crown the winners. Dun.
“…Black directors with a very specific vision, a vision which isn’t “historical slave/Black suffering movie.”
Thank you, Kaiser, for saying the quiet part out loud.
Nope was kind of boring. Worth watching once but def not Oscar worthy.
I agree with her. I’m generally not a fan of most horror movies but there have been a few in the past which was have been overlooked and for any/ all categories (small & major).
As for Jordan Peels’s movie – NOPE, it was not scary if one was to place it in the horror category. It was also a strange movie & maybe slow paced for some BUT I actually liked it. I can see why it was well received by movie critics & did well at the box offices & exceeded expectations.
I am becoming increasingly disturbed by this no-eyebrows trend.