80th Academy Awards Reflects Hope for Art

This year’s Academy Awards Ceremony offered something completely new: authentic change. Last year’s show was historic because Martin Scorsese won his long-overdue first Oscar, and the show itself went “green.” Al Gore and Leo DiCaprio’s lecture about the environment was a bitter pill to swallow against the backdrop of an event that held fast to its glitz and glamour.

Progressive politics couldn’t do it, but a drawn-out writers’ strike brought the industry to its knees and its biggest event down to size. With very real speculation that the 80th annual ceremony would not take place at all, everyone realized life would indeed go on without the Oscars. As a result, the show didn’t pretend to be the center of the universe.

If not for the writers’ strike then the movies themselves contributed to the glib mood. The two front-runners No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood are dark, challenging and nihilistic. The closest nomination to a romance story was Atonement, a film that embodies a kind of hopelessness. Critics suggested that the movies of 2007 and 2008 expressed the complexity of this historical moment: America and Americans are changing; escapism is no longer an option.

The Academy, in turn, reflected this shift in perspective rather than remaining steadfast in their marketable optimism.

While no single film swept the categories, the academy chose not to be defiant in the face of art. The new American classic No Country for Old Men was honored with four awards: best supporting actor (Javier Bardem) as well as best adapted screen play, best directors and best picture (Joel and Ethan Cohen).

Notably, no American actors took home Oscars. Marion Cotillard of France won best actress for her portrayal of the tragic Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose. The superb Daniel Day Lewis won for his complex performance in There Will Be Blood.

The high moment of the night, however, was the result of an error. Czech musician/actor Marketa Irglova of Once was abruptly cut off when accepting her award for best song, but Host Jon Stewart invited Irglova back after the commercial break to applause from the audience. It was that rare moment when an artist who isn’t inhibited by the maintenance of her image says something authentic.

She declared that Once, a small, Irish independent film made on a $100,000 budget, offered hope in its tale of two alienated people who reached each other through song. Hope is for everyone, she said, reminding the Hollywood and television audience that art comes from the imagination of individuals, not studios and industry.

At the end of the night, the results were more or less expected, but this year’s ceremony was anything but predictable. In a year marked by strife, difference, depth and death, the Academy acknowledged the changing face and attitude of American culture. It doesn’t take Al Gore or a political agenda to promote change; art, when given a chance, can and will do that on its own.