The Academy has infamously struggled to make the Oscars representative of achievement in film from diverse actors, producers, and directors, but this year, the event did achieve some new milestones for their long 92-year history.
First and foremost, Parasite became the first non-English language feature film to win Best Picture. Foreign films have historically been isolated to the foreign film categories, but on Sunday, Parasite broke down barriers with wins in not only Best Picture, but Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best International Feature as well.
Taika Waititi also made history as the first person of indigenous descent to win Best Adapted Screenplay. New Zealand born Waititi is of Maori descent and won the award for his work on Jojo Rabbit.
The 42 piece orchestra which accompanies the award show was also conducted by a woman for the first time. Irish composer and conductor Eimear Noone lead the orchestra in playing a musical medley for all the nominees. To top off this musical milestone, Hildur Guðnadóttir became the fourth woman in Oscar history to win Best Score for her work in Joker.
In other big moments, Brad Pitt also won his second Oscar, but his first for acting. The last movie produced by 20th Century Fox, Ford v. Ferrari, also took home two Oscars. Disney purchased the production company in March of last year.
Next year, we hope to see women win Oscars for writing awards as no woman has won in those categories in the last decade, but this year’s Oscars did feature some big wins for traditionally underrepresented categories that deserve a celebration!
