The Oscars Are in Thrall to a New Wave of Resistance Politics

The film historian and journalist, Mark Harris, published a book in 2007 called “Pictures at a Revolution,” which focused on the best picture nominees at the 1968 Academy Awards: “The Graduate,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “In the Heat of the Night,” and “Doctor Dolittle.” These films both shaped the landscape of Hollywood and reflected contemporary America’s views of race and youth anxiety.Fast forward to now and the best picture nominees still usually reflect the state of cinema in the previous year. Last year’s ceremony demonstrated the power of independent cinema, which has increasingly struggled at the box office. This year the big winners from last weekend’s Academy Awards, now in their 98th year, were “One Battle After Another”, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and “Sinners,” the horror-Western directed by Ryan Coogler.The two films received thirteen and sixteen Oscar nominations respectively. “Sinners” represented the populist option, a commercially successful hit that’s a hybrid of a horror and a Western; “One Battle After Another” was the critical darling that tells the story of a revolutionary who rescues his daughter from an authoritarian regime. The 1968 Oscars disclosed a shift in American attitudes towards authority, where the cultural elites moved towards the left. With the re-election of President Donald Trump, many pundits predicted a cultural vibe shift that would be favorable towards the administration, pointing to movie studios such as Disney significantly reducing their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Yet the majority of this year’s best picture nominees conjured up a vision of America that’s incredibly bleak. The leading movies of 2025 portrayed political violence to various degrees reflecting the increase in political ferocity as the USA continues to be divided. “One Battle After Another,” released two weeks after the assassination of Charlie Kirk and which ended up winning best picture, was sympathetic to characters who are far-left and often glorifed their violence towards authority. “Sinners” painted a bleak vision of America that depicted the culture of African Americans, in the lead-up to the Jim Crow laws, being taken away by white Americans. “Bugonia,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, was a remake of a Korean film, centering around two conspiracy theorists kidnapping a pharmaceutical CEO, thinking that she is an alien. “The Secret Agent” saw a professor caught in the crossfire of the Brazilian dictatorship, trying to flee persecution. Ironically Ari Aster’s “Eddington,” which was not nominated for any Oscars, followed this pattern more profoundly. The film centred around a small town becoming divided over petty issues during 2020 when race riots and the Covid-19 pandemic were both at their height. If there was any movie that deserved more recognition, it was “Eddington,” which depicted the absurdity of political polarization around the time, with precision and wit. Anyone hoping that these movies could lead to political change should think twice. In an op-ed for The New York Times, Hope Reeves, the daughter of two Weathermen activists, lambasted what she dubbed the “popcorn resistance” of “One Battle After Another.” While she demonstrated her extremist politics in the article, her thesis was essentially correct — pseudo-radicalism is due to critics wishing that it were the case. While it is not unusual for the movies released during awards season to succumb to left-wing groupthink, this year’s best picture nominees indicated that the mainstream movie landscape has not moved away from “wokeness” in the ways that some people might have assumed. Such overt messaging shouldn’t distract from the fact that there were some high-caliber best picture Oscar nominees this year. If there’s anything that “F1,” “Sentimental Value,” and “Marty Supreme” had in common, it’s that they revolved around characters who aspire to greatness. “Sentimental Value” was about an aging filmmaker trying to make one last great film by reuniting with his daughter, while “F1” and “Marty Supreme” were both about two men fighting to emerge from their own personal wilderness and attempting to achieve the highest honor while eschewing societal norms. The doomed Oscar campaign run by “Marty Supreme” was fascinating. The movie’s star, Timothée Chalamet, aimed to capture control of the attention economy in an age where name recognition isn’t a guarantee of a box office hit. The way Mr. Chalamet promoted himself and his film ensured that the movie had a cultural footprint big enough for Academy Award voters not to ignore it but ultimately not give. The film had now become the highest-grossing film domestically for A24, the independent studio that made it.The Academy Awards still struggle with relevance, largely because fewer people are watching the movies that are nominated. Previously campaigns and the critical hype often pushed the movies at the box office. But there are signs of optimism such as the introduction of an Academy Award for best casting to recognize the craft of casting directors, who after all determine which actors should play which characters. A new category for best achievement in stunt design will be introduced in 2028, providing greater recognition for the technical aspects in the blockbusters that movie audiences have actually seen.For now, the success of “One Battle After Another” and the failure of Marty Supreme” at this year’s Oscars showed there is still nothing more that the Academy loves more than movies that are totems for the new wave of resistance politics.

The Oscars Are in Thrall to a New Wave of Resistance Politics

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