‘Oscar’

This article applies a persona studies approach to the case study of the Academy Awards. Key literature is used to situate an ‘Oscar’ persona within existing conceptualisations from the discipline. Oscar represents a composite persona that encapsulates an event, its broadcast, an Academy of individuals, and a larger discursive industry. It is a non-human persona that is coloured by distinctly human elements; it is collectively constructed on a massive scale, the process of which inviting constant contestation. Drawing from these theorisations I conduct a textual analysis to reach a persona reading of Oscar. As collective authors of the persona, members of the Academy, associated performers, and discursive contributors employ three distinct and consistent persona strategies: the Functional, the Spiritual, and the Ironic. Oscar’s taste-making function is enabled by extravagant staging and tempered by expressions of philanthropy yet performed with ironic self-effacement. The cumulative effect of these three performances allows Oscar manoeuvrability across the requirements of the different cultural contexts of each year. As well as providing a unique prism for understanding the Oscars as an institution, this work demarcates different levels of collective persona construction, challenging notions of central authority in production and performance, and accounting for the ongoing constructive work of publics.

REPRESENTATION OF JEALOUSY IN SHORT MOVIE “THE NEIGHBORS’ WINDOW”

Short films are often underestimated for their lack of duration. People think that the short duration will affect to how the messages are conveyed. However, short films are now very popular. There is even a category of best short film in Academy Awards, or well-known as Oscars. The Neighbors’ Window is one of many Oscars’ winners for best short film. This research aims to find out how jealousy is represented in the short film The Neighbors’ Window by Marshall Curry. This method of this research uses a theory from Saussure called semiotics. This research also uses an approach of Representation theory by Mary Beltran and Stuart Hall. Most of the data in this article is taken from scenes in the short film which later are connected with the theories. This result of this research shows that the important scenes presented in this movie are representation of Jealousy towards each character. This research shows that the movie is about jealousy presented by the symbols in the movie using some analytical research by applying the two theories.

“American Factory” and the Difficulties of Documenting Neoliberalism

Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s documentary American Factory, a project purchased by Netflix and distributed by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020. It is a stunning and poignant movie about how a Chinese company comes to establish an auto glass factory in Moraine, Ohio, on the site of a former GM production plant. In light of American Factory’s critical success, this essay focuses on the contemporary capacity of the documentary form to capture the specific logic of socioeconomic and geopolitical contradictions. This is explored through the rubric of neoliberalism, especially as it complicates how a story of a factory might be told. It also links the style of documenting workers to a longer cinematic history.

The Representational Politics of Oscar Winning Movies of Obama Period

This paper attempts to focus on Academy Awards belonging to a particular timeline, specifically during the administration Council of America's 44th President Barack Obama ( 20 January 2009 to 20 January 2017). It concentrates on the selection of movies and its themes that has been reflected in three wider sections such as war, black and LGBTQ movies. The primary objective of this particular paper is to discover the obscured and parallel politics that usher the process of selection in Academy. This paper tries to exemplify the actuality that in selecting foremost movies in the Academy entertain superior authority and their governance and also how the assessment of movies are culturally and politically biased. All discussed movies are the findings of chief objective and are primary sources that fundamentally appease its argument that selection of Oscar winning movies are culturally and politically biased.

From Cannes to Cardboard: The Circulation and Promotion of Visages Villages and the Auteur on Instagram

This article explores the Instagram activities of Agnès Varda and her Visages Villages (Faces Places, France, 2017) codirector JR to consider the role of social media in the film's theatrical release and awards campaign, which led to the film's nomination for Best Documentary Feature—Varda's first and only Academy Award nomination. Through analysis of Varda's posts and her appearances on JR's Instagram, the author argues that social media complemented the film's conventional promotion while extending Varda's aesthetic practices and interests, offering one of the final examples of her consistent, enthusiastic experiments with new forms of media. On Instagram, Varda recycled and recontextualized the strategies of self-presentation and formal play seen in her documentaries for a different format, as she posted images and videos involving premieres, special events, and press coverage from her perspective. Throughout the film's release and awards campaign, social media began to function as an atypical way to draw attention to the film and its directors, especially for a low-budget documentary. The Visages Villages team merged traditional methods of achieving visibility with an unusual and intentional online presence, culminating in substantial coverage from new types of outlets when JR traveled to the Academy Awards luncheon with cardboard cutouts of Varda.

Food for the Dogs: Consumption and Wealth Inequality in Bong Joon-Ho's Parasite

Bong Joon-Ho’s film Parasite was remarkable for being a foreign film that took home multiple Academy Awards in February of 2020, making waves for its potent message about class divide and wealth inequality in South Korea. Bong Joon-Ho makes a very clear point throughout the film of emphasizing this class inequality, especially through the production and consumption of food by either party. In this essay, I analyze the ways in which food throughout the film symbolizes the divide between rich and poor, then take these scenes and use contemporary research to further build on how food is a signifier of class and wealth universally. From the Kim family sitting around a small kitchen table eating what looks like food from a vending machine, to using a fruit someone is allergic to as a weapon against them, there is a clear indication consistently throughout the film of food as a signifier of status and class. From this point, I will take this divide and analyze its significance to the modern culture and society of South Korea, then further apply this to its relevancy in a modern United States wherein this current wealth gap is also increasingly apparent. Parasite was a foreign film that flourished in American society—both are countries wherein a capitalist ‘meritocracy’ rules for the most part, and an analysis of the culture around the film will show the ways in which the cultures that consumed this media are similar in their class divides.

Power

This chapter replays the Stanford Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo, going into detail about how the arbitrary assignment of guard and prisoner roles led to some of the most sadistic behavior witnessed in a laboratory environment. The study demonstrated how behavioral scripts are put in motion, where people conform to social stereotypes and role expectations as driven by power and influence differentials. The experiment is juxtaposed against the 2016 Academy Awards, where indirect forms of power resulted in a lack of minority nominations, bringing to light a multitude of signs pointing to indirect discrimination. The outcry led to a commitment to both overhaul membership in the academy and improve the mechanics of the awards process. Implications for the workplace extend to diversity and inclusion practices and policies to safeguard against harassment and bullying.