Adoption and The Oscars

Many of you may know in my spare time I also write a blog about movies called The Academy Award Project. The original goal was to see every film that had won best picture. Along the way I decided that some of these films were not that good and wondered how did they win? So I started to watch the films nominated for best picture and then would compare them against the film that won and then write about it on the blog. I have now seen all films that have won best picture and over four hundred of the nominated films to currently sit at 494 of 512.

Some of the films I have seen that were nominated have adoption as a main theme in them. Here are five that I have enjoyed and would recommend you watch them sometime if you haven't seen them already.

Blossoms In The Dust (1941) - Nominated for four awards including Best Art Direction (Color) which it won the Oscar, Best Picture, Best Cinematography and Best Actress the very talented and beautiful Greer Garson. Based on the life of Edna Gladney, although rather fictionalized, who was a board member of the Texas Children's Home and Aid Society. The film shows the negative stigma of adoption back at the turn of the 20th century and how she spends her life helping to find adoptive parents for orphans.

In real life in 1936 Edna Gladney got the Texas legislature to have the word illegitimate taken off birth certificates for adopted and abandoned children. Ten years after the film was made she helped get a bill passed that gave adopted children the same inheritance rights as biological children. Very few films are made showing adoption from the view of the agency working to place children, but this one is really done well.

Secrets & Lies (1996) - Nominated for five awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Screenplay. A young woman decides to find her birth mother after her adoptive mother passes away. She was born in the late 60's when adoptions were closed and even as an adult people try and talk her out of meeting her birth mother. She finds her birth mother and meets her biological family in a very intense drama.

This film is shown from the viewpoint of the adoptive child as well as the birth mother as they come to terms with ending a closed adoption as they try and form a relationship. And seeing how this film was nominated for all major awards is enough to prove that it is an exceptional movie and one you should see.

Juno (2007) - Nominated for four awards including Best Original Screenplay which it won an Oscar, Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress. A teenage girl gets pregnant and while considering an abortion decides to carry the baby to term and seek out an adoptive parent. She finds a family that is looking for a child but agree to a closed adoption. The film then shows the rest of the pregnancy until the child is born.

Shown from the viewpoint of the birth mother but not so much from the adoptive family. It does a very good job at showing the emotional circumstances that a birth mother must go through from finding out she is pregnant to delivery. Very well acted and a simple film done well.

The Blind Side (2009) - Nominated for two awards including Best Actress which it won an Oscar for Sandra Bullock and for Best Picture. Based on the life of Michael Oher, tells the story of a teenager adopted by a wealthy family after spending years in foster homes. Because of his large physical size he plays football and while being recruited for collegiate teams runs into a problem with the NCAA accusing his adoptive family of only adopting him to go play football at their alumni. Currently Michael Oher is an offensive lineman with the Tennessee Titans.

This is shown from the adoptive child and the adoptive family viewpoints, but does show how adoption can happen even if the child is not an infant or very young. As well it shows that it is never too late to give a child love. A good enjoyable film to watch if you haven't seen it already.

Philomena (2013) - Nominated for four awards including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score. Based on the real life story of an Irish woman who held on to a secret for fifty years that she was pregnant as a young woman. Her father sent her to a Catholic Abbey where after she gave birth was forced to work for four years to pay off the cost for her stay. During that time the Abbey adopted her child to an American family and was taken to the United States without her approval. Her daughter tells this to a journalist who goes with her to America and help her find her child while he writes about her story.

Shown from the birth mother viewpoint of trying to find her child, this film once again shows that not very long ago adoption was considered a shameful thing. Hopefully in the future this will be considered an outdated philosophy that people will be confused why did it even happen. See this film when you can, it's a very powerful simple well done movie.

And make sure you check out The Academy Award Project to see what films I have seen and my rankings of them after I finish each year and decade. Soon to be expanded to Best Director!