At last night’s Academy Awards, the weird and sentimental multiverse sci-fi epic "Everything Everywhere All At Once" took home wins for 7 of its 11 nominations, including best picture, best directing, best original screenplay and three of the four acting categories - historic first time wins for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Jamie Lee Curtis. It was incredible seeing perhaps the weirdest movie of the year sweep the awards, but also the most hopeful movie. What I love about "Everything Everywhere All At Once" is its message to embrace each other and the universe’s (or multiple universes’) vast possibilities, to find meaning in the seemingly meaningless. Even in a universe where we have hot dogs for fingers.
When asked backstage about how it felt to be among the nominated women this year, Curtis offered her thoughts on the challenges of gender equality and inclusivity in Hollywood.
“Obviously, I would like to see a lot more women be nominated so that there’s gender parity in all the areas, in all the branches. And I think we’re getting there,” said Curtis. “We’re not anywhere near there, and of course inclusivity then involves the bigger question which is, how do you include everyone when there are binary choices? Which is very difficult. As the mother of a trans daughter, I completely understand that.”
Another hopeful film I loved this year, "Women Talking," won for best adapted screenplay. It’s about a group of god-fearing Mennonite women debating the choice to leave their colony or stay with the men who have been assaulting them for years. While being very different movies, "EEAAO" and "Women Talking" both urge us to protect one another and be kind, despite the chaos, confusion and violence that comes from our differences.
In her acceptance speech "Women Talking" director Sarah Polley said, “Miriam Toews wrote an essential novel about a radical act of democracy in which people who don’t agree on every single issue manage to sit together in a room and carve out a way forward together, free of violence. They do so, not just by talking, but by listening.”
This week, our episode “Journeys Through Gender” shares a similar ethos. We ask what we can learn about ourselves and our identities when we lead with empathy and a desire for understanding others. What would it mean for gender to be liberating and not limiting? The answers may not come easily, but the first step is to listen.
– Angelo