It can feel frustrating to watch brilliant films by women get snubbed at award shows year after year without any explanation, but Carey Mulligan thinks the reason is frustratingly simple. While speaking to Variety at Sundance for her upcoming film Promising Young Woman, Mulligan referenced films like Hustlers, Little Women, and The Farewell each getting only chance nods during award season, but not sweeping categories the way The Joker, Marriage Story, and 1917 did. She believes it's not even a choice, but that those in charge of voting just aren't watching them.
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“I don’t think you can watch those films and not think they deserve recognition,” she said. “I think they need to be watched. I wonder if the system works in terms of getting sent 100 screeners."
Going forward, she proposes a test.
"Maybe you shouldn’t be allowed to vote unless you can prove you’ve seen every single one," she suggested, adding. "The films that did get left out are indisputably brilliant."
Mulligan is known for taking sexism to task. She had no patience for a Cannes event in which she was asked a slew of disingenuous questions and later that year called out an audience member at a panel who criticized her Wildlife character for being "unsympathetic."
"We’re all too used to only seeing women behaving really well [in movies]," Mulligan said at the panel, per IndieWire. "When we see them out of control or struggling it doesn't ring true because of everything we’ve been brought up to understand that women are always perfect and can do anything. That’s an unrealistic expectation of a woman. Seeing real humanity on-screen can be really jarring from a female perspective."
Quick, there's still time for the Academy to put together a Hustlers/Little Women/The Farewell triple feature to serve some last-minute justice come the Oscars. Who would say no to that movie night?
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