International Organization for Migration: Migration scored with film audiences in 2018

 

 

Viewers around the world watched the Academy Awards last night.  The IOM highlights the issues of migration raised by many of the movies nominated for Oscars this year.  Migration scored with film audiences in 2018 as films like “Roma,” “Capernaum,” “Cold War,” “Lifeboat,” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” all which touched on themes of human mobility and were recognized for Oscar nominations.

Three of the five artists nominated in the category Best Director were migrants born abroad: from Greece (Yorgos Lanthimos, nominated for directing “The Favourite”), from México (Alfonso Cuarón, for “Roma”) and from Poland (Pawel Pawlikowski for “Cold War”). The Oscar went to Mr. Cuarón for his drama about the life of a Mexican migrant, a woman who journeys from rural México's capital during the 1960s.

Other reminders of migration abounded during the Oscar ceremonies. For example, an actor whose family migrated to the U.S. from Egypt (Rami Malek) won the Best Actor Award playing a rock star who emigrated from Zanzibar to the U.K. to reinvent himself as the singer known as Freddy Mercury in the biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

KJ