Skip to main content

When an Immigrant, a Black Man, and a Woman are Nominated for Best Director, Everyone Wins

Well, not really, but still...

Guillermo del Toro wins Best Director at Oscars 2018

Recommended Videos

Guillermo del Toro won the Academy Award for Best Director for his film, The Shape of Water, which also just won Best Picture. It is a gorgeous and unique fairy tale that centers a female character with a disability (who isn’t played by one, but…). While I totally enjoyed that movie, I was pulling for someone else in the director’s race specifically. Still, I’m trying to remember the fact that this unique crop of nominees is pretty astounding in the first place.

I was really pulling for Greta Gerwig in this category. I wanted Jordan Peele for Best Screenplay (score!) and I think that Get Out deserves Best Picture, but Lady Bird does an amazing job at evoking a very particular feeling, a class-based, gender-based feeling that rarely gets shared, and is the type of quiet, low-key story that often gets dismissed, because you have to be loud to be considered important.

As Lady Bird herself says in the film, “Lots of things can be sad. It doesn’t all have to be war.”

Still, del Toro is riding that Latinx representation wave, and that is an area that is hugely in need of increased inclusion. Check out his beautiful and sweet speech above.

Bonus points for Emma Stone introducing “four men and Greta Gerwig.” Zing!

While I’m disappointed that neither Get Out nor Lady Bird took home their biggest prizes, I’m glad that they were beat out by someone for whom winning an Oscar is also an important moment for a marginalized community, and the fact that Guillermo del Toro, Jordan Peele, and Greta Gerwig were all nominated in the same categories means there’s hope for the Academy yet.

(image: screencap)

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com

Author
Teresa Jusino
Teresa Jusino (she/her) is a native New Yorker and a proud Puerto Rican, Jewish, bisexual woman with ADHD. She's been writing professionally since 2010 and was a former TMS assistant editor from 2015-18. Now, she's back as a contributing writer. When not writing about pop culture, she's writing screenplays and is the creator of your future favorite genre show. Teresa lives in L.A. with her brilliant wife. Her other great loves include: Star Trek, The Last of Us, anything by Brian K. Vaughan, and her Level 5 android Paladin named Lal.

Filed Under:

Follow The Mary Sue:

Exit mobile version