Hollywood’s Big Moment: Will Tinseltown Stand Up to Fascism?
It’s Oscars weekend, and the most important question isn’t who’s taking home a statue
On Sunday stars will take to the red carpet for the 98th Academy Awards in front of a heavy backdrop of fascism, war and corruption coming straight from the White House.
We’ve already seen household names from Samuel L. Jackson to Billie Eilish using their celebrity to decry ICE at previous awards shows. We hope that artists continue to speak out against the xenophobia tearing apart our country, illegal wars and the innocent lives lost.
We also need to be talking about how Trump is angling to capture Hollywood and control its movie-making machine. That’s why Free Press is driving a billboard around Los Angeles this weekend showing Trump pulling the strings behind the massive media merger that threatens to upend Hollywood and the news business, too.
Paramount Skydance has won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery, a storied studio that also happens to own CNN, Nickelodeon and HBO. David Ellison, the son of tech centibillionaire and Trump ally Larry Ellison, runs Paramount Skydance, and the Ellisons have made it no secret that they’re willing to contort their massive media conglomerate into a Trump propaganda megaphone.
We couldn’t have scripted a more detestable cast of bad guys. But the community of artists and journalists who will gather at the Oscars has a chance to demand a happier ending.
Storytellers are foundational to our democracy
We go to the movies to escape, but also to learn, be challenged and experience different ways of looking at the world. Oscar-nominated films traditionally focus on big questions, and this year’s crop is no different.
Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” has earned the most nominations in Academy history, with its deep dive into the country’s history of anti-Black violence. The film also examines the power of art and how white folks have engaged in cultural appropriation — which makes it a perfect film for this moment.
“Sinners” isn’t the only title that nudges us to examine our current reality and work to build a diverse and inclusive democracy. “The Secret Agent” reminds us how to resist fascism. “Frankenstein” illustrates what happens when a narcissistic megalomaniac leans into his toxic masculinity: He creates something grotesque and then lets it loose and abused into the world. (Sound like any cabinet secretaries you know?)
Films help us understand the world around us. When done well, they bring us fresh perspectives, open our hearts and minds and feed our curiosity. They help us consider the issues of the day and reflect back the worst and best possible versions of ourselves.
When done poorly, well, see “Rush Hour 4” or “Melania.” Or maybe don’t.
The Ellisons (and media consolidation in general) suck
The Ellisons are just like Remmick in “Sinners,” waiting outside the speakeasy, hoping to co-opt and consume. Now they want to suck the life out of the studio that’s been delivering for decades — from “Casablanca” to “The Dark Knight” — and devour CNN, too.
The current version of Paramount is a cautionary tale about why you need to be very wary about who you invite inside the house. Remember, Paramount owns CBS, and it’s the Ellisons who installed Bari Weiss as the head of their news operation. With no understanding of what a “free press” actually looks like, Weiss has gutted CBS’s newsroom, spiking stories and overseeing layoffs.
That’s after Paramount agreed to pay the president $16 million to settle a frivolous lawsuit and then fired Stephen Colbert when he accurately characterized the payout as a “big fat bribe.” They abandoned DEI programs. And they did it all to win Trump’s merger approval.
Ruth Livier, Ph.D.
Given their penchant for censorship and their disdain for diversity and inclusion, the Ellisons shouldn’t be in charge of the studio that brought us films like “Malcolm X,” “Crazy Rich Asians” and “All the President’s Men.” We don’t want them to continue eroding the integrity of CBS — let alone take over CNN. (Ellison has already promised “sweeping changes” to the network if he gets his hands on it.)
More broadly, we don’t want just a handful of rich, self-interested villains in charge of what films get made, which headlines get prioritized, or who gets to tell important stories.
Hollywood loves an underdog
Despite what we know about the impacts of media consolidation — that it costs jobs and results in higher prices and less creative content — the deck seems stacked against us as the president and one of the richest families in the world conspire to warp major newsrooms and consolidate two of our country’s storied film studios.
Good thing Hollywood loves an underdog, and that thousands of artists have already spoken out against this merger — from Jane Fonda and the Committee for the First Amendment to the Writers Guild to the International Documentary Association, to Future Film Coalition and its Block the Merger campaign.
When ABC/Disney pulled Jimmy Kimmel off the air under pressure from the Trump FCC, Hollywood stars defended the late-night host’s free speech rights. More than 400 stars signed an open letter to Disney, decrying Kimmel’s suspension. Dr. Frankenstein himself (Oscar Issac) spoke out, telling GQ, “I’m not so open to working with Disney. But if they can kinda figure it out and, you know, not succumb to fascism, that would be great.”
If the entertainment industry’s leading lights want to save their industry, they need to follow Isaac’s lead and be bold now. It matters when stars like him speak out. It matters when a legend like Fonda organizes her peers to stand up for the First Amendment. It matters when everyone you’d want to run into at the after-party is wearing an ICE OUT pin.
For your consideration
Oscar campaigning is a cottage industry in Los Angeles. Studios spend big budgets on bespoke parties matching popular artists with Academy voters and ads “for your consideration” in glossy trade magazines and billboards around town.
Free Press ripped a page out of that script with our mobile billboard running around Hollywood this weekend. It asks Hollywood to “consider” David Ellison as giving the “best performance in a puppet show” with Trump, of course, as the puppeteer. And what would critics praise them for? Namely, corruption, capitulation and censorship.
Is that the behavior the Hollywood elite want to celebrate? We doubt it.
We can keep up the pressure by urging state attorneys general to block this deal. Trump’s Department of Justice appears poised to shirk its duty, but make no mistake, this deal isn’t just bad for our country, it almost certainly violates antitrust law. And the fight isn’t over yet.
This awards season, the best look on the red carpet is defending our democracy.
About the authors
Cristina Escobar is the senior director of marketing and communications at Free Press. She’s also a cultural critic and the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Latina Media Co. You can follow her on Instagram @cescobarandrade.
Jessica J. González is an attorney and co-CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action, where she leads efforts to transform the media system so it can support a just and multiracial democracy. Follow her on Bluesky.
Teamwork
Compiled by Pressing Issues editors
On Thursday, Free Press Action and Demand Progress delivered a letter backed by 90 civil-society groups to Democratic leadership in Congress, calling on them to oppose Trump administration efforts — being led by White House henchman Stephen Miller — to expand government surveillance powers under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Groups who signed the letter include the ACLU, Brennan Center for Justice, Color of Change, Indivisible, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Immigrant Justice Center and Reporters Without Borders.
Recent polling from Data for Progress showed that just 12 percent of Americans favor expanding surveillance efforts, with the majority calling for significant reforms.
“There are terrifying risks to reauthorizing government surveillance powers that have been abused to spy on protesters, immigrants, journalists and even political candidates under any presidential administration,” Free Press Action advocacy director Jenna Ruddock said on Thursday. “People across the country and on both sides of the aisle agree, and overwhelmingly support urgently needed reforms to FISA.”
Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. González joined Color of Change and other allies in a Thursday press conference, highlighting an open letter demanding accountability from corporations who are backing off their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Color of Change published the letter in an ad in Sunday’s the New York Times.
