This year was an historic one for the Academy Awards. Halle Berry (Monster's Ball) became the first woman of color to win best actress, while Denzel Washington (Training Day) became only the second black actor to win the coveted best actor statuette since Sidney Portier won it for Lilies of the Field in 1963.

Now some cynics may postulate that the Academy picked both Berry and Washington so they could pat themselves on the back for making history, but in opinion this was not the case. For a change, the Academy actually honored the most deserving nominees. Some will argue that Russell Crowe was more deserving than Denzel, but just as Roger Ebert suggested prior to the ceremony, Crowe played a character that was within his usual scope while Denzel played a character against type. And while Crowe was good in A Beautiful Mind, Denzel set the screen ablaze in Training Day.

But one could at least argue that Russell Crowe was perhaps more deserving; however, Halle Berry was a clear winner. Her performance in Monster's Ball was phenomenal. She displayed unsurpassable levels of passion, desperation, hate, confusion and hope as Leticia Musgrove, a woman who begins a new life with her husband's death row executioner. Apart from the fact that a woman of color was finally awarded the best actress Oscar it was great to see an important independent film like Monster's Ball getting recognition-Roger Ebert was worried that not enough voters had seen the film.

However, I was not impressed with Will Smith's ranting and raving before the ceremony about the voters being white Americans who usually vote for white American films, so as to justify the obvious: he didn't have a chance. First of all, I'm not sure Smith even deserved the nomination (Gene Hackman, Guy Pierce and Billy Bob Thornton were all more deserving, in my opinion), and second of all, Smith's name should never be mentioned in the same sentence as Denzel Washington's-if Smith became the second black actor to win the award it would've been an insult. Over the past two decades Washington has been one of our most charismatic actors; he was overlooked by the Academy for his portrayal of Malcolm X, and as a father seeking redemption in He Got Game (he wasn't even nominated for He Got Game). Smith on the other hand has given us the occasional laugh as the buffoonish Fresh Prince.

But Smith made a valiant point. The Academy, for the most part, has overlooked minorities for the past 74 years. In recent history the most notable example is Spike Lee's magnum opus Do the Right Thing, by far the best picture of the year in '89, which wasn't even nominated. Lee arguably deserved best director and best picture honors for his epic Malcolm X as well.

Other black actors who have been overlooked in recent years are Jeffrey Wright, Delroy Lindo, Rob Brown and Samuel L. Jackson, who was nominated for his supporting role in Pulp Fiction. However, none of the others were even nominated. Gene Siskel described Jeffrey Wright, who played painter Jean-Michel Basquiat in Basquiat, as "absolutely brilliant… so tender, so restrained, so charismatic… certainly worthy of an Oscar." Wright was incredible. And Delroy Lindo and Rob Brown were great in their respective roles in Clockers and Finding Forrester.

But The Academy has marginalized not only black actors. Each year independent and lower budget films in general are overlooked. Many considered Memento the best film of 2001 and it wasn't nominated for any awards; it did, however, clean up at the Independent Spirit Awards. Also, Richard Linklater's Waking Life, perhaps the most innovative film in recent years, wasn't acknowledged by the Academy. One of the problems may be that Academy voters aren't seeing these independent films. Last year when chatting with a member of the Academy I discovered he hadn't seen several films that were nominated in various categories, films like Requiem for a Dream and You Can Count on Me. And this is why actors like Julia Roberts win Oscars undeservedly (she was by far the worst of the five nominees for best actress in 2000).

So perhaps Halle Berry and Denzel Washington's Oscar victories (and last year's best supporting actor Benicio Del Toro) will not only open the door for other deserving minority actors, but will also open the door for independent films and lesser-known actors in general. Hey, maybe the most deserving actors, directors and films will start winning Oscars. You never know, that Scorsese guy might even win one some day.

Copyright © 2002 Simon Remark. All Rights Reserved.