Academy Awards

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/10/2023
  

  What Anna May Wong's History Tells us About Oscar's Asian and Asian American Moment

  by Katie Gee Salisbury

  The first Asian-American film star got her break when a film company cast ethnic actors in a 1922 film made to test out the new Technicolor technology. But Hollywood's racial politics and commercial imperatives kept other Asian actors from stardom. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  3/12/2023
  

  Oscar Documentary Winner "Navalny" Part of Long Protest Tradition

  by Lynne Hartnett

  Without traditional or legal support for dissent and free speech, Russian activists have long turned to martydom as the way to dramatize injustice and criticize power. The recent Best Documentary winner is part of this tradition. 

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• SOURCE: KTLA
  10/2/2022
  

  Native Activist Sacheen Littlefeather, Known for 1973 Oscar Protest, Dies at 75

  The Academy had earlier this year issued an apology to Littlefeather for the abuses she endured after protesting the depiction of Native Americans in films during the Oscars ceremony. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  4/25/2021
  

  Women Dominate One Academy Award Category. Here’s Why

  by David Resha

  Women have dominated the Documentary Feature category at the Academy Awards, and have indeed shaped the genre from the beginning. But this reflects the fact that the film industry has been more willing to entrust leadership to women in the low-cost, low-stakes environment of documentaries than in feature film. 

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• 2/9/20
  

  The Dramatic Relationship Between Black America and the Academy Awards

  by Elwood Watson

  From Hattie McDaniel to #OscarsSoWhite. 

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• 2-13-15
  

  Oscars: Real History Is Far More Intriguing than Reel History

  by Bruce Chadwick

  Several Oscar Best Picture nominees have been lashed by critics for their misguided history. These movies are just the latest in a long line of very good films that have been chastised for distorting history.

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• 2-7-15
  

  America’s Entertainment Capitals: Hollywood and Brooklyn. Yes, Brooklyn.

  by Bruce Chadwick

  What do Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Mary Tyler Moore, Eddie Cantor, George Gershwin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jackie Gleason, Spike Lee and Joan Rivers have in common? Brooklyn!

• SOURCE: WaPo
  2-21-13
  

  Jim Cullen: How Six Oscar Winners Tell the Story of America

  Jim Cullen is chairman of the history department at the Fieldston School in New York and author of "Sensing the Past: Hollywood Stars and Historical Visions" (Oxford University Press). A box office is not a voting booth, but they have their similarities. Neither is entirely democratic in the ways it offers choices, and each is a little too deferential to market forces. But both tell stories about the state of the nation, produced by teams that are fronted by star performers.In politics, some of the most successful performers take on multiple roles. Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama: Their stories have offered versions of the country — where it had been, where it was headed. Some were stories of restoration, others of progress.In the Republic of Hollywood, it’s movie stars, not politicians, who rule. And in Hollywood, as in politics, one of the recurring themes is our national ambivalence about powerful institutions — religious, economic, military or political — and their influence over everyday life.

• SOURCE: CNN.com
  2-22-13
  

  Jim Cullen: With Lincoln, A New Frontier for Day-Lewis

  Jim Cullen is chairman of the history department at the Fieldston School in New York and author of "Sensing the Past: Hollywood Stars and Historical Visions" (Oxford University Press).(CNN) -- If, as many observers believe, Daniel-Day Lewis wins the Academy Award for best actor on Sunday, he will become the first man to win three (Meryl Streep has done this; Maggie Smith might match her if she wins for her turn in Quartet). Such an honor would ratify Day-Lewis' standing not simply as one of the greatest actors of his time, but for all time.Like Robert De Niro, Day-Lewis is seen as the quintessential method actor, a commitment he has taken to extremes in his well-known penchant for embodying his characters even when the cameras aren't rolling. Day-Lewis also is notable for the extraordinary breadth of roles he has played.He first came to global attention in 1985 when he appeared simultaneously as the priggish Cecil Vyse in the Merchant-Ivory film adaptation of E.M. Forster's 1907 novel "Room with a View" as well as Johnny, the gay East End punk, in Stephen Frears' brilliantly brash "My Beautiful Launderette."...