From the Emmy Awards to Toronto, from Sundance to Venice, from "The Pacific" to "Buried", and then to "Like Crazy", within just half a year, Renly accomplished an astonishing triple jump that seemed implausible. Like a comet colliding with the Earth, he emerged with a dazzling brilliance, collecting his first Oscar nomination of his career amid a chorus of praise.
At this moment, Renly Hall was only twenty-one years old.
As people revisited this year's Oscar nominations for the actor categories, they realized that the collective strength of Gen Y had indeed arrived. Yet, this surge was far from the media's heavily portrayed dominance. The strong rise of the new generation encountered a setback from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, akin to a gust of autumn wind passing by, desolate and fleeting.
Four nominees in the Actress category were: Haley Stanfield at fourteen, Jennifer Lawrence at twenty, Michelle Williams at thirty, and Natalie Portman at twenty-nine.
In the Actor category, the two nominees were: Jesse Eisenberg at twenty-seven and Renly Hall at twenty-one.
Among the twenty nominations for Lead and Supporting roles, Gen Y held six seats. Such momentum had already set the best record since the 21st century began, although it fell slightly short compared to the Golden Globe Awards.
Even the Actress category was no exception.
In the Supporting Actress category, which usually favored young actresses, only Haley unexpectedly made it in. As for the Lead Actress category with an average age of thirty-seven for winners, let alone said, this year having three actresses under thirty securing nominations marked the youngest group in the past decade.
Thus, the Lead Actor category with an average winner age of forty-three, and even the Supporting Actor category, which had almost turned into a retirement home, were more so. After entering the Oscar nomination list, only two Gen Y actors appeared on it, a far cry from the pervasive momentum that ran through the entire awards season.
It was like scalding water being poured into a thick layer of snow. Such outcomes were truly disappointing.
In fact, for true professionals, this didn't seem strange at all. It was even expected, and utterly unsurprising.
Where there are people, there are inclinations. Even the Oscars were no exception. With over six thousand Academy members as judges, the Oscars had strived for fairness and authority, but biases were still inevitable. The Oscars, after all, remained an awards ceremony belonging to Hollywood.
Throughout history, controversies around the Oscars have never ceased.
For instance, white individuals overwhelmingly dominated leading roles, while ethnic minorities represented by Black, Latinx, and Asian actors remained disadvantaged, not to mention that there still hadn't been a Chinese actor who secured a major category nomination until now.
Then, there was the stark gender disparity. No female director had ever won the Best Director award in history until 2010.
Furthermore, young male actors almost faced neglect; the nomination stage was incredibly arduous for them. When it came to actresses, older professionals encountered similar difficulties. Even if they had strong capabilities, they faced considerable challenges.
In the subsequent year of 2012, after "The Artist" controversially won the Oscar for Best Picture, the Academy consecutively awarded the Best Picture to conservative, reserved, and homage-filled works harking back to the golden era of cinema. This sparked a public wave of questioning, deep disappointment with the Oscars, and even led to complaints from many industry professionals.
In such a backdrop, the Los Angeles Times stepped forward to conduct a thorough investigation.
People then realized that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had never officially released the specific list of its members. Due to the lifetime membership, there were many members who were no longer in the film industry. Among the voters were not just film professionals, but also nannies, bookstore owners, and retired military recruitment officers, which was both amusing and absurd.
The Los Angeles Times delved deep into the industry, using various means such as phone calls, emails, and subscriptions to publications like Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. They also read Oscar publications, resumes, and autobiographies, and sent numerous reporters for in-depth interviews. Eventually, they managed to confirm the true identities of more than five thousand one hundred judges.
After the statistics were concluded, the results shocked the media, revealing the truth behind the Oscars for the first time.
According to calculations, the average age of Oscar judges was sixty-two, with only two percent of judges being under the age of forty, while a staggering fifty-four percent were over sixty. Among them were hundreds of Academy members who hadn't participated in the production of any film or television show for over twenty or even thirty years.
Furthermore, the Academy had a total of fifteen branches, including actors, writers, directors, producers, and cinematographers, among others.
When considering race and ethnicity, some of these branches were almost entirely composed of white males. In each branch, the proportion of white individuals was over ninety percent; the only exception being the actors' branch, where the proportion was eighty-eight percent. In the management branches, ninety-eight percent of members were white.
When it came to gender, apart from the actors' branch, which was the only exception, the male proportion in the major Oscar selection branches exceeded ninety percent. More alarmingly, the Academy had a board of directors consisting of forty-three members, of which only six were women, and there was just one member from a person of color.
Of course, this was a historical legacy. After all, the Oscars had reached the eighty-third edition, and until the 1980s, the historical status of Black people and women had already shaped the foundation of Academy membership. As for the completely neglected Asian population, that's another story. Over the past decade, the Academy consciously started to recruit fresher blood to increase the diversity of its judging panel.
For instance, Zhang Ziyi, in 2000, entered the American market with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and later contributed with several impressive works. She even came close to securing a Best Actress nomination with "Memoirs of a Geisha", though it slipped through her fingers in the end. Still, she was invited to become a member of the Academy's judging panel.
Starting from 2004, the Academy began to publicly announce the list of people invited to join. However, they didn't further disclose who accepted or declined the invitation.
After a decade of evolution, the composition of the Academy's judging panel had changed somewhat. Eighty-nine percent were white, and seventy-three percent were male. However, minority and female members were still underrepresented.
This uniformity of members' nature resulted in a narrow perspective and a monolithic viewpoint. It also led to the predictable trends in the Oscar awards every year, fostering what could be called "Oscar Snipers" like the Weinstein brothers.
In 2005, "Brokeback Mountain" lost to "Crash", which wasn't surprising at all. Up until now, only four female directors have secured Best Director nominations, which wasn't unusual either. This year, among the twenty seats in the actors' branch and the five seats in the directors' branch, they were all occupied by white individuals, and the absence of Black actors was also unsurprising.
At irregular intervals, the Oscars would inevitably face accusations of being too white, or innovative works like "The Social Network" would be met with cold reception. These patterns were discernible, and changing history wasn't something that could be accomplished solely by the power of a single work. Even though the Oscars were currently the most esteemed and authoritative awards ceremony globally, it didn't mean they were the most just; they still had their own characteristics.
This year was no exception.
The rise of Gen Y actors was comprehensive. The so-called Gen Y referred to those born from 1977 to 1990. The oldest among them were just thirty-three years old. In the eyes of the judges with an average age of sixty-two, they were merely young. For instance, fourteen-year-old Haley was essentially a granddaughter, and even twenty-year-olds like Jesse were still considered juniors.
They would always think that these actors could still be polished further, that they had plenty of time to grow, that they weren't ready to be pillars yet, that they needed to continue proving themselves, that they weren't deserving of Oscar recognition, and that they needed to learn from those ahead of them.
As a result, only four female actors and two male actors from Gen Y received nominations. This was the Oscars.
Among them, Michelle and Natalie, who had already proven themselves, won nominations again, firmly establishing their position in the minds of the Academy judges. Haley and Jesse, on the other hand, benefited more or less from the strength of their works, drawing more attention. Riding on this momentum, they managed to enter the final battle stage with force. Their future development, however, remained to be observed.
However, Jennifer and Renly, their cases were different.
These two actors barely received any advantages. They solely relied on their own abilities, carving out a path by sheer determination. Especially since they were both only twenty and twenty-one years old respectively, they were practically the "grandchildren" of the judges. The fact that they could overcome all the unfavorable conditions and secure nominations was truly commendable and deserving of a standing ovation.
The award season of 2010, divided into two distinct segments by the release of the Oscar nomination list, marked a turning point where the dynamics underwent a sudden change.
Especially in the Best Actor category, where the young had originally rallied against Colin Firth, the scene transformed into a deadlock—three seasoned actors facing off against two young talents. The situation immediately became intriguing.
Apart from Colin, the winning momentum of the other four nominees surged. Jeff and Javier posed a considerable threat to Colin; Jesse, armed with the sword of "The Social Network", remained a strong contender, and nobody knew if the film would make a comeback in the following one and a half months. Renly, who had unleashed his potential and rode the wave of Sundance, charged forward.
It's worth mentioning that Focus Features suffered heavy losses in the nomination phase. "The Kids Are All Right" only received four nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Original Screenplay. Their advantage was gone, and they were left behind by numerous competitors. "Buried" was left with a solitary nomination for Best Actor, having no chances in any other categories.
In this scenario, Focus Features concentrated their efforts on the battles for Best Actress and Best Actor. All their public relations resources began to tilt toward these categories. Whether it was Annette or Renly, they had their respective shortcomings but also evident advantages. The victor's fate was yet to be seen.
This year's award season had resoundingly entered its second phase!