Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

To something more trivial/technical:

Hacksaw Ridge's win in Editing gives us a seven-year stretch where the best picture winner took the prize only once (Argo). There was one case where the winner (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) wasn't even a best picture nominee, and you can argue that nether Whiplash nor Hacksaw would have made a field of five.

Give the historic roughly 50% correlation between best film and best editing from the 50s through the 90s, and the maybe-once-a-decade instances of non-best picture nominees taking the prize during that period, this seems a notable development.

Can we just say that Midnight Cowboy was the first best picture winner in which the existence of gay people was acknowledged fact?

Of course, that's passing over the many films where it was implied subtext, notably in Lawrence of Arabia.

It must be in the translation. Or maybe it's a generational thing. In 1969 America, it was considered a gay movie.

From Moviefone:

Gay cinema. Director John Schlesinger was openly gay (at least within the film industry), and he carefully crafted "Midnight Cowboy" to appeal to both a gay audience starved for images of itself and a mainstream audience that could recognize humanity even in such marginalized characters. The film kicked open a closet door that allowed other filmmakers to explore more directly themes of gay identity, from "The Boys in the Band" to "Brokeback Mountain" and beyond. It also allowed future openly gay directors (including Gus Van Sant, Todd Haynes, and Bill Condon) to work both sides of the street, making mainstream Hollywood films as well as films about the gay experience.

There definitely is a homosexual subtext in Midnight Cowboy (as, say, there is one in Red River) - but it's not a gay movie, as there's almost nothing explicit in it. And what IS explicit - like the scene with Bob Balaban - is there in order to point out that it is NOT a gay movie.

Midnight Cowboy was based on James Leo Herlihy's famous 1965 gay novel of the same name. Although most of the gay stuff was left out of the film, there is still enough there for audiences to ponder. The balcony scene with Jon Voight and Bob Balaban is as explicit as anything in Moonlight, including the night on the beach scene, and was one of the reasons the film was initially given an X rating. It wasn't a positive gay film by any means, but it was a gay film in the broad sense.

There may be gay undertones to Midnight Cowboy, but as Joe largely resists the idea that he might be gay and repugnantly responds to each situation wherein he's confronted with that idea, I will never classify the film as a gay film and it sure as hell isn't explicit.

anonymous1980 wrote:

danfrank wrote:It is the first best picture with an explicit gay theme.

I think there's an argument that could be made for Midnight Cowboy being the first.

Maybe I should have said unambiguously gay. Much has been written about the sexuality of Ratso and Joe in Midnight Cowboy, but it really is ambiguous and in the end it is a story--quite a beautiful one, in my opinion--about an unlikely friendship among lost souls.

danfrank wrote:It is the first best picture with an explicit gay theme.

I think there's an argument that could be made for Midnight Cowboy being the first.

Here's one that just occurred to me. It's also something that is likely never to happen again.

Ben and Casey Affleck are the first siblings named (intentionally or not) after a TV show that aired in the time slot that the Oscars took over at least once. It's mentioned in the opening of one of the broadcasts of the openings available on YouTube.

Ben Casey, for those who don't know, was one of the first successful TV doctor series. It was ABC's rival to NBC's Dr. Kildare. It ran for five seasons from 1961-1966.

Sometime I forget it's not 1980 anymore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_A ... g_families

http://time.com/4679006/oscars-2017-sib ... y-winners/

As far as Oscar winning siblings go, Norma (best actress 1930) and Douglas (multiple sound related wins, on 1930 as well as other years) Shearer are the most diverted ones, I guess.

I wonder are there any other cases of such "creative"-"technical" combos?

You've also got the Mankiewicz Brothers, who won in separate categories, although they did both win writing awards (of course Joe won for directing as well). Not brothers, but McLaine/Beatty are another sibling pair who won in different years and categories.

David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco become one of a dozen or so married couples to win Oscars together.

The Boekelheides and Corboulds, both in the sound categories, have won Oscars.

Moonlight becomes the first best picture winner directed by an African American, and the second by a black director. It is also the first best picture with an all-black cast. It is the first best picture with an explicit gay theme. These are all pretty significant firsts, I would say.

Big Magilla wrote:In acting, yes, but overall no.

Off the top of my head, the Epstein brothers for the screenplay for Casablanca

Urhhh ... and Coen brothers.

But this is probably the first time ever that we have two brothers winning Oscars in two different categories and in two different years.