Lights, Camera’s, Drama!! The annual Oscar’s film ceremony has recently come to an end! Spartan Shield celebrates all the winners of these prestigious awards and honors them for their amazing efforts and performances. Much of the public has the same sentiments, with a few exceptions—
Every year the Oscars has a Drama from a vicious slap heard around the world, to someone’s outfit being considered sub-par. This year the Oscars have seen much backlash from the winners of a couple awards. Most notably Adrien Brody for Best Actor in The Brutalist , Zoe Saldaňa for Best Supporting Actress in Emila Perez, and the FIlm Anora for Best Picture.
Many people are in uproar, as Tiktokers across the web talk about the controversial use of AI in Adrien Brody’s performance to enhance the accent Brody used in his acting for The Brutalist. This all spawned when the creators of The Brutalist flaunted the new and improved AI technology to enhance, voice and video effects. This AI was used on Adrien Brody to further the realism of his accent. Along with fans already thinking the performance was illegitimate and should not be honored as a real performance. Adrien Brody gave a 5 minute and 30 second speech where he sushed the other performers and gave a very obnoxious attitude to the entire event.
Another big event that many people especially in the Latin(x)(a)(o)(e) community were in uproar about was the movie Emila Perez due to it being considered cultural appropriation having no creative proximity to the communities is leverages for an artform; and it garnered a whopping 13 academy award nominations. A feat that wow’s any filmmaker. This accomplishment is not only rare but only been surpassed three times with, La La Land (2016), All about Eve (1950), and Titanic in 1997 garnering 14 nominations. Emila Perez must be this amazing movie that is a must see right?
In fact, Emila Perez is more infamous for its status as a punching bag to the Oscars viewers than a great movie to see. This was also seen as there was an uproar on the internet with thousands of Tik Tok’s being made, hundreds of articles, and millions of complaints around the world for Zoe Saldana winning best supporting actress over actors like Ariana Grande (Wicked) and Felicity Jones (The Brutalist).
In recent interviews, Zoe Saldana has come out apologizing for Mexican communities being hurt by the misrepresentation of Mexican culture and people. With that set she does go on to defend the movie saying that the main focus of the movie is about four women and not the country of Mexico or its culture.
Zoe responded to reporters stating “these women could have been Russian, could have been Dominican, could have been Black from Detroit, could have been from Israel, could have been from Gaza,”
Which on face value is true in many criticisms and analysis of the film, but her addressing of the issue of the appropriation and misrepresentation of Mexican culture and especially Mexican women is a multifaceted issue that yes; the women in this film could have been any ethnicity, nationality, or color, but did you represent these factors honestly and accurately.
Now, the nomination that is most prestigious in many’s eyes and the most controversial award. This year’s academy awards best picture went to… Anora! Directed by Sean Baker, an indie filmmaker, and produced by NEON. As per usual Anora caught much flack from many users online who believed the movie should have gone to any of the competitors with people from one part of the internet yelling “it should have been Dune 2!” or “Wicked should have won!! It’s so obviously rigged”.
Anora mostly gained a lot of attention from the fact that it was considered a “sleeper” hit. Anora did not perform amazingly in the box office and was considered too vulgar for a lot of people with the movie’s lead character being a stripper. So many people were put off by it at face value but many film critics and the academy nominators loved the story with the character stating her personhood and having a deep characterization.
The journey with the character of Anora is one built upon the actress’s own improv and becoming Anora. Madison spent months of preparation learning Russian and and learning pole dancing for the role. She even took some time to live in brooklyn and get used to life there as a newcomer. She spent lots of time in strip clubs learning about the environment that her character would grow and flourish in.
Here at Spartan Shield will say, 2025 Oscars; Must see!!
Written by Martin Saenz, Staff writer