Pearl’s star Mia Goth said that horror films are consistently ignored by the Academy.
As is the case every year, the Academy announced the nominees for the 95th Academy Awards. And, as seems to be tradition, the Oscars again left out the horror genre.
Now, Pearl actress Mia Goth is chiming in on why she thinks the Oscars and horror movies don’t match. “I think it’s very politically…It’s also not based on the project’s quality per se. There are many things going on and many cooks in the kitchen when you think about nominations. Although I don’t think it’s fair to say so, I believe that it’s true. I think a lot of people know that.”
Ti West’s Pearl-a prequel to the same year’s X-earned rave reviews (Martin Scorsese called it “deeply disturbing”), with Mia Goth, in particular, being singled out by numerous critics associations. It was a long shot that Mia Goth would be nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Actress. Goth said, “A change is necessary… A shift should be made if they want to engage with wider public. I think it would be of benefit, really, [to nominate horror movies].”
Goth may have a point here. The Oscars are always looking to increase their viewership and would be wise to consider including horror in their programming. Nobody would expect Scream VI to compete with the next Scorsese film, but acknowledging strong performances by Mia Goth or smart screenplays like Barbarian‘s would be a good look for the Academy.
But realistically, it’s unlikely that the Oscars will ever consider horror a “legitimate” enough genre to let it vie for major categories consistently. It is a stunning rarity that the genre is nominated for Best Picture, with The Exorcist, Jaws, The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, Black Swan, and Get Out being the only ones-and even some of those would be better labeled as thrillers.
What do you think? Did Pearl deserve any recognition from the Academy? Is horror too underrepresented at Oscars? Let us know below!
