The Florida Project [134 points / 13 votes]
“So why didn’t The Florida Project get nominated for Best Picture or Best Director? Willem Dafoe was given a nod for Best Supporting actor for his reserved yet heartfelt performance as the manager of ‘The Magic Castle,’ a dystopian motel down the road from the manufactured utopia that is Disney’s ‘Magic Kingdom,’ but other than that the film was ignored. I would think the film’s indie budget of $2 million might have hindered its chances of an Academy award, pushing it towards the many Independent Spirit nominations the film did garner, but last year’s Best Picture winner Moonlight was reportedly made for less, $1.5 million. Even if budget isn’t the reason the film was overlooked, money still might be at the root of the snub, more specifically the story of money.
“Many critics have pointed out that the unromanticized look at American poverty, especially women in poverty, might be the culprit behind the film’s lack of Oscar nominations. Though Lady Bird deals class difference it hugs much closer to the middle-class; Lady Bird lives in a small house longing for a mansion, while the mother and daughter protagonists of The Florida Project scrape by in a motel, having to change rooms occasionally to appear as though they aren’t permanent residents. Baker recognized the disconnect between Hollywood and reality in his film early on; he knew that casting a starlet worth millions in a film telling the story of a very specific version of need wasn’t going to work sending him to cast in non-traditional ways- through Instagram, inside a Target, at an actual roadside motel called home for many children. Despite Baker’s best efforts, and the resulting darkly honest story, the only Oscar nomination went to the only Hollywood star.
“Moonee (young Brooklynn Prince) sits in the bathtub of her hotel room playing with her toys in an imagined world. Her mother (Bria Vinaite) turns up the music and closes the door trying to shield her daughter from the actions unfolding in the other room, actions she must take to pay her rent. When a strange man enters the bathroom one night, Moonee is faced with confusion, fear and reality. Childlike dreams slowly harden into the American one, a capitalistic narrative that the Academy is more than happy to support and one that the stark realness of The Florida Project turns away from. Baker’s preoccupation with those not so much living on the fringe but those living in vastly overlooked populations- both by Hollywood and beyond- continues to set him apart as a humanistic auteur; an echo of the Italian-Neorealists and a needed change in the overly curated/Photoshopped lives of current image based culture. Hopefully Sean Baker will continue to tell these vital tales and lead others to do so, and hopefully the Academy, as it seems to have done for decades, will lag behind, slowly recognizing that audiences exist outside of its gilded gates, outside of its own focused frame of pretend.” ~ Donna Kozloskie
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