This year's Academy Awards was quite special for a few reasons. For one, it was the 90th edition of the award ceremony. Secondly, it has some major first like Rachel Morrison being the first woman to get nominated as a cinematographer for Mudbound or Jordan Peele getting nominated for Best Film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay (which he won). The most important factor being the ceremony comes right at the time when the Times Up and Me Too campaign, a movement to empower women to come out against sexual predators in the industry, is at its strongest. The movement was mentioned in host Jimmy Kimmel's awesome opening monologue. Then Ashley Judd, Salma Hayek and Annabella Sciorra, who were the most outspoken against disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, took centrestage to talk about the Times Up movement.
James Franco, who was supposed to be a frontrunner for Best Actor for his performance in The Disaster Artist, was not even nominated after five women accused him of sexual assault. Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck also gave the event a miss after allegations of sexual misconduct were levelled against them.
However, there are stills some Twitter users who felt that the Oscars failed to live upto its support for the campaign, and that has something to do with the jury awarding Gary Oldman and basketball champ Kobe Bryant trophies. Gary Oldman, who won the Best Actor for his performance in The Darkest Hour, was previously accused by his ex-wife, Donya Fiorentino, of physical assault in 2001. However, he was cleared off all charges by the court. Kobe Bryant, who won the Best Animated Short Film (Dear Basketball), was accused by a hotel employee in 2003 of raping her. Again, Bryant managed to get out of unscathed, but his reputation took a huge beating.
But it looks like Twitter is not ready to forgive them so soon, as they shamed the Academy for awarding these stars.
Give it up for Gary Oldman and Kobe Bryant, for proving that men with domestic violence or sexual assault accusations can still accomplish anything. #Oscars
— Jena Friedman (@JenaFriedman) March 5, 2018
-Jordan Peele is the 5th black man nominated for best director
-There are only 6 Asian nominees
-There are only 3 Latinx nominees
-Gary Oldman has been accused of domestic violence
-Ryan Seacrest has been accused of sexual harassment
-Winston Churchill was a white supremacist
— Mackenzi Lee (@themackenzilee) March 5, 2018
#Oscars: we're completely against sexual abusers. The #TimesUp and #Metoo movement are so important!#Oscars: :(((#Oscars: give it up for gary oldman and kobe bryant! One is a domestic abuser and the other a rapist. We appreciate them
— marwah™ (@ProsaicBeing) March 5, 2018
Gary Oldman & Kobe Bryant won Oscars tonight...both have been accused of sexual assault. Sexual assault should end careers... no coming back. #metoo #timesup #oscars
— Andy Szekeres (@AndySzekeres) March 5, 2018
they really had the audacity to give domestic abuser Gary Oldman an oscar a year after giving it to sexual harasser Casey Affleck pic.twitter.com/Pzqjy9HGgC
— ceIine cuIIen (@filmogrphie) March 5, 2018
Congratulations to all of tonights #Oscars winners, except sexual/domestic abusers @KobeBryant & Gary Oldman.
— Christine Parker (@ceemarieparker) March 5, 2018
It's sad how many people brought up Gary Oldman's link to #TimesUp after his alleged domestic abuse incident from nearly 20 years ago and those same people are scared to death to touch Kobe's alleged sexual assault because they either covered or interviewed him. Star-chasers.
— Mike Wise (@MikeWiseguy) March 5, 2018
this whole show of the academy trying to prove how woke they are with the #metoo movement then giving Kobe and Oldman oscars is the exact same thing that happened at the golden globes with Franco the film industry really does not give a fat fuck about sexual assault victims
— ً (@ryoukotanbo) March 5, 2018
...and these are some more voices who are annoyed with the whole fraternity for being silent over the years, despite being aware of the sexual predators amidst, and cheering for them when these people got awards. Like the one below,
THEY ALL KNEW about the pedophile, sexual assault accusations, allegations and remained quiet for years, decades as their careers grew and new rising talent was scarred for life.
THEY ALL KNEW.#Oscars #Oscars90 #RealTalk #WaynesTake #TheyAllKnew
— Wayne Dupree (@WayneDupreeShow) March 5, 2018
So what do you make of this whole controversy? Share your thoughts below...
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 05, 2018 05:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).