And the Oscar for best climate change film of 2024 goes to …
“The Wild Robot,” a beautiful animated movie that takes place in a world irrevocably altered by rising seas.
Not that there was much competition.
For the second year running, nonprofit consulting firm Good Energy applied its Climate Reality Check to the actual Oscar-nominated films. Intended as a climate version of the Bechdel test, which measures representation of women, the Climate Reality Check tests whether a movie and its characters acknowledge global warming.
Compared to last year, the results weren’t great.
Of last year’s 13 Oscar-nominated films that met Good Energy’s criteria (feature-length movies set in present-day or near-future Earth) three passed the test. This year, there were 10 eligible films. Only “The Wild Robot” passed.
The climate silence “does feel a little striking after the harrowing year we’ve all had,” Good Energy Chief Executive Anna Jane Joyner said, referring to the fossil-fueled wildfires that tore through Altadena and Pacific Palisades.
“I think Hollywood is learning firsthand that it’s on the front lines of climate change,” she added.
Maybe a few years from now, studios will release a torrent of movies and shows reflecting the realities of a scary-but-still-salvageable world, helmed by producers and writers jolted into renewed awareness by the infernos.
But for now, the picture is bleak.
A peer-reviewed study slated for publication this month, led by Rice University English and environmental studies professor Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, analyzes climate change mentions in 250 of the most popular movies of the last decade. The authors found that just 12.8% of the films allude to global warming.
Just 3.6% depict or mention the climate crisis in two or more scenes.
“A lot of times, it’s really being mentioned in passing,” Schneider-Mayerson said.
It’s also possible some Hollywood studios could be wary of acknowledging climate change on the silver screen so long as Donald Trump is president, given his history of climate denial and fealty to the oil and gas industry — and his growing propensity to threaten and bully media companies whose content displeases him.
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Moving forward, filmmakers need to understand that stories ignoring climate change don’t reflect reality.
“It’s going to feel like they’re in a fantasy universe,” Joyner said.
