A Modest Proposal for the Oscars

With the Oscar-nomination voting window now over, there’s nothing to do but sit and wait for the nominations announcement on Monday morning—or, if you’re Vanity Fair’s Mark Harris, sit and think of ways the Oscars could be better. Inspired by Tuesday’s Directors Guild Award nominations, which includes a best-first-feature category, Harris suggests that a best-first-film Oscar might be just the shot in the arm the Academy Awards need. Writes Harris, “at a moment in Oscar history when the Academy has drastically overhauled its own membership but still faces the industry-wide systemic inequities that are currently causing people to wonder if we’re looking at yet another all-male directing lineup or an acting roster with only one performer of color among the 20 nominees, a best-first-film Oscar that could go to the director (or—here’s a crazy thought—the director and writer!) would be a way of celebrating the future of movies along with their past and present.”
Elsewhere in HWD, Laura Bradley celebrates the prolific Mel Brooks, who will bring his classic Young Frankenstein to ABC as a live production this fall; Yohana Desta mourns the end, yet again, of hope for a revival of The O.C.; and Maureen O’Connor reports from the Manhattan courtroom where Harvey Weinstein was threatened by a judge for using his cell phone in court.