The 85th Annual Academy Awards... A Mixed Bag For Latinos

The 85th Academy Awards ceremony (referred to as The Oscars), presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place February 24, 2013 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California.

Oscar winner Claudio Miranda

While the Oscars of the previous year had eight nominees who were Latino (including acting nods for Demián Bichir and Bérénice Bejo), this year's batch of nominees had no Latinos in the acting categories (nor in direction nor screenplay in what the Oscars call the "Big Five" categories). The only Latino nominees were Paco Delgado (Costume Design for Anna Karenina), José Antonio García (co-nominee for Sound Mixing for Argo), the Chilean film No (directed by Pablo Larraín and nominated for Best Foreign Film) and Chilean-born Claudio Miranda (Cinematography for The Life of Pi). Of these nominees, only Miranda won an Oscar (and denying now 10-time nominee Roger Deakins from picking up his first Oscar).

And yet, Latinos were present in the ceremony, from presenters Salma Hayek (herself a former Oscar nominee) and Zoë Saldaña to Fátima Ptacek (star of the Oscar-winning live action short film Curfew) to the subjects of the Best Documentary Oscar winners.

Inocente, star of the Oscar-winning
documentary short of the same name

This year's Academy Award winner for Best Documentary - Short Subject was Inocente (directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine), which tells the story of a 15-year-old homeless girl in California who aspires to be an artist. The film was part-financed by the crowdfunding website Kickstarter (an Oscar first). The filmmakers brought up their subject when they accepted the award and spoke about the need to support artists in general. If you would like to see the documentary short, click here.

Rodríguez, star of the Oscar-winning
documentary Searching for Sugar Man

This year's Academy Award winner for Best Documentary - Feature was Searching For Sugar Man (directed by Malik Bendjelloul), which tells the story of two South African fans trying to find the whereabouts of their favorite musican, Rodríguez. The film was originally shot on 8mm film to record the film, but when the director ran out of money for more film to record the final few shots. The remainder of the shots were shot on the director's smartphone using an application called 8mm Vintage Camera to complete the film.

And of course, Argo, based on the life of Antonio "Tony" Mendez, won Best Picture (as well as Best Film Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay).

This year was also the second year where Puerto Rico was declared ineligible in the Best Foreign (Language) Film category after being considered and having films submitted since 1986. The Puerto Rican film Lo que le pasó a Santiago (What Happened to Santiago), directed by Jacobo Morales, was an Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film in 1989.

Lupe Ontiveros

Another thing to note (and a very important one as well) was that many people were omitted in the annual In Memoriam tribute to the artists who have passed away in the previous year. One of the most glaring omissions was that of the much beloved character actress Lupe Ontiveros. Several people were omitted this year from the telecast, but included in a slideshow on the Oscars website; she was also snubbed there as well. Ms. Ontiveros had an illustrious long career in film, television and theater and her omission is highly disheartening for those who knew her, worked with her or enjoyed her work. [Ms. Ontiveros was among the artists remembered in the In Memoriam section of the 2012 HOLA Awards this past October.]

All in all, this year's Academy Awards were a mixed bag for Latinos. Latinos are in the film industry and always has been. Heck, even the statuette of the Academy Award is modeled on a Latino actor-screenwriter-director. And with the growing number of Latinos in the United States, it is about time that Hollywood actually wakes up and takes more notice.