movie to win the academy award for best picture. a silent film, a story involving world war i combat pilots, in love with the same woman. the oscar ceremony that year was attended byjust 270 people at the hollywood roosevelt hotel and it lasted just 15 minutes. i arrived in los angeles to cover the oscars for the first time in the 1980s with the late great bbc film critic, barry norman. in subsequent years, american film reviewer david anderson, who wrote for newsweek, joined barry to comment on the oscars for the bbc. the biggest voting branch in the academy as actors. this veteran hollywood based film critic and film festival programmer is still thriving. he remembers the 1950s when the oscars were a much larger cultural phenomenon reflecting perhaps america s superpower status. the big stars would always be there, the elizabeth taylors, kirk douglases, burt lancasters,
broke that glass ceiling! cheering and applause. hello from los angeles. i m tom brook and welcome to talking movies. in today s programme, in the wake of the academy awards, we look back at the changing face of hollywood, the efforts that are being made to bring about greater diversity and inclusion. with the oscars now over, the film industry is reflecting on how it all went. the first academy awards ceremony took place in this landmark hollywood hotel in 1929. 95 years on, the oscars is facing challenges. wings was the very first movie to win an academy award for best picture. a silent film, a story involving world war i combat pilots in love with the same woman. the oscars ceremony that year was attended byjust 270 people
all right. 0k. really intriguing, for sure. for sure. what s your second choice this week? so, girls can t surf. obviously an ironic title. this is a documentary from australia about women on the surfing scene in the 80s and 90s. this was a time when they were not being taken seriously, in these kind of renegade rogue days for these women who were absolutely incredibly talented, but they were coming up against a lot of sexism. and this documentary mixes archive footage with modern day interviews with these amazing women. there are so many great, witty, wonderful women in this film sharing their recollections of the past in a very lively and funny way. it s not a moan fest, you know. they re saying, 0k, we have these challenges, but we had this sisterhood. we got through it and this is how we got through it. and there s a sense of celebration about how far things have come in the surf scene since then, and the sort of groundwork that these women laid for the women now who finally a
yes, she s incredibly selfish. but i do think a little bit more depth is revealed towards the end of the film, and ijust enjoy decoding her character. i just thought it was really fun to do that. yes, you might be right there. you re probably a better person than me because i was easily irritated by her. but i think, yes, you re right that more is revealed by the end. i don t want to say any more than that, because obviously i don t want to do any plot spoilers. i suppose if you did know her in real life, she d be sort of life and soul of the party, and you would invite her to every social gathering you had, and she would be the social butterfly. so i guess she s kind of fun to have around? yes, and she s shown from a female perspective and what i like about this, it s a female writer director. it s not the kind of manic pixie dream girl trope you see who s very sexualised in films by men. so i liked that about it and it just felt it rang true to me. it s interesting. it s an interes
and this is just chance, but i spent the whole film thinking about the lionesses, and thinking about all those conversations we had when they won the euros, about the women who d gone before england footballers, other footballers who never got the recognition or the money, and, goodness, i mean, just a parallel story in the world of surfing, just in a different sport. completely. it feels very topical, as you say, by coincidence. but i think that should hopefully give it appeal to people. as you say, i knew very little about surfing, not particularly interested in it, but this is a human story and it s a story about equality in sport. yes, i mean, there really is some rampant sexism in the early days of that. i think from what i know more than very much more so than in the world of football. but that s to do with the sport as well, isn t it? but really, it s quite an eye opening documentary. yes, it s a lot of fun and it s educational. yeah, absolutely. and a french film for number thr