Sorry MAGA, Turns Out People Still Like ‘Woke’ Art

As this year The Oscar nominations were handed out this morning, I told my friend Sinnerswith a total of 16 names, made history. He replied: “He woke up again.”

He was joking (don’t come for him!), but his joke highlights a very stark dichotomy. Last year, while everyone from president Donald Trump was talking about the dangers of DEI, the biggest cultural achievement —Sinners, Demon hunters in kpop, Hot competition, Battle after battle– Everyone showed diversity in new ways. And I succeeded. These works were not only popular among leftists or critics, but were real cultural phenomena.

Sinnersa horror film set in the Jim Crow South, used vampires as a metaphor to explore systemic racism and cultural theft — and director Ryan Coogler scored a feat in his deal with Warner Bros. Which gave him the film rights for 25 years. Demon hunters in kpopthe story of a Korean-Canadian director who had been waiting more than a decade for her chance to direct a feature film, focused heavily on authenticity and brought the already huge subculture around K-pop into the mainstream. Hot competitiona small Canadian television production picked up by HBO, had a deeply subversive impact on the game of hockey by chronicling the exciting and poignant love story between two close professional players. and Battle after battle— which was denounced by conservative commentators who felt it celebrated left-wing violence — offered complex views on motherhood and activism while criticizing ICE-like agent Colonel Stephen J. Lockjaw and his desperate attempts to fit in with other racists.

In a year in which the White House issued several executive orders eliminating DEI programs in the federal government, the successes of those projects seemed like a form of resistance. Corporate media outlets followed Trump’s lead, with Warner Bros. reportedly Discovery, Amazon, Paramount Global and Disney have scaled back their diversity efforts. Skydance, founded by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Trump supporter Larry Ellison, has been acquired by Paramount, which briefly took Jimmy Kimmel off the air over his joke about Charlie Kirk supporters and gave CBS News an apparent conservative makeover. Meanwhile, shows featuring red meat in the form of farmers, angry MAGA followers, cowboys, and Christian values ​​have been given the green light.

“There’s a feeling from…this administration that the only stories that matter are those of straight white men, and that’s simply not the case,” says Jenny Werner, executive artistic director of the New Harmony Project, which develops theater, film and television projects and says it is committed to anti-oppressive and anti-racist values.

“Audiences want to feel transformed. You want to be able to sit down and watch something, whether it’s in your home or in a theater, that takes you somewhere new and maybe gives you a new understanding of something.” She adds that she believes that artists will continue to present “works that transcend boundaries,” even if it becomes more difficult.

Even before Trump’s second term, trying to get unconventional stories produced in Hollywood was daunting. According to UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report, released in December, nearly 80% of theatrical film directors in 2024 were white, along with about 75% of lead actors.

The report also notes that this discrepancy leaves money on the table, noting that BIPOC moviegoers are “overrepresented as ticket buyers for films that are more than 20 percent BIPOC.” Sinners grossed $368 million at the box office, a feat that places it in the “Horror Hall of Fame” according to The New York Times.