John Krasinski wonderfully assisted Ang Lee in announcing the 2016 Oscar nominees on January 15th, but there was one issue. All 20 contenders for actor awards were white and films with black themes were shut out. Critics are asking how this could happen for the second year in a row.
The Oscars have always tried their best to diversify their nominees, but it is evident that The Academy is still skewed toward old, male, white actors. This data was discovered in a 2012 investigation by The Los Angeles Times.
The last time that a black actor was nominated for an actor award was in 2014 and the same goes for a film with a black theme. At the 86th Academy Awards, "12 Years A Slave" actually won Best Picture. This film takes place during the years before the Civil War. Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. Although he did not receive the award for Best Actor, he was nominated. Barkhad Adbi was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor the same year. Although he also didn't win, he was still nominated and the general public knew that he deserved recognition for his work in "Captain Phillips."
This year, the film "Creed" was snubbed. It is a film about Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan), who never knew his famous father, boxing champion Apollo Creed. He died before Adonis was born. However, boxing is in his blood, so he seeks out Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and asks the retired champ to be his trainer. This film was written by a black man, directed by a black man, and the main character was played by a black man. But only Sylvester Stallone, a white man, was nominated for his reprising role of Rocky Balboa.
"Straight Outta Compton" is a film that takes place in 1988. It's about a groundbreaking new group that revolutionizes music and pop culture, changing hip-hop forever. N.W.A's first studio album, "Straight Outta Compton," stirs controversy with its outright honesty about life in Southern Los Angeles. This hip-hop group was comprised of mostly young, black, unknown actors, who were a great ensemble. The film was also directed by a black man named F. Gary Gary, who is also not being recognized for his work. The only nomination that the film received was for Original Screenplay, which was written by two Caucasian men.
Women were also not recognized as often as they have been in the past. Several Oscar categories traditionally offer a mix of gender, race, and sexual orientation among nominees, including documentaries, animated shorts, feature-animation, costume design, hair and makeup, and editing. Although that is still true this year, some of these categories now have all male nominees (e.g., cinematography, sound editing, sound mixing). However, Sara Bennet did snag a nomination in the Visual Effects category for "Ex Machina," but that makes one woman out of the total 19 nominees in that category.
Last year, #OscarSoWhite blew up the Twitter-sphere, generally focusing on the acting and directing categories. This hashtag was mostly dedicated to the omission of actor David Oyelowo and director Ava DuVernay from "Selma," a film that focused on the struggle for African Americans to register to vote, even though the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was supposed to desegregate the South. Segregation still occurred in the South, so, despite violent opposition, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his followers went on an epic march from Selma to Montgomery. This march resulted in President Lyndon B. Johnson signing The Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee are both motioning for actors of color to boycott the Oscars this year. Snoop Dogg even expressed his anger through Instagram and voiced his opinion with many racial slurs and curse words. Lee and Pinkett Smith both voiced the fact that they were boycotting this year's Oscars and the videos explaining their feelings went viral. Both actors wished this year's host, Chris Rock, the best with hosting, but rumors are now swirling that Chris Rock no longer wants to host the show on February 28th. The comedian tweeted on Friday that the ceremony was the "White BET Awards." Even George Clooney called out the Oscars for "being too white" this year.
For optimists, change is in motion and progression will be made. For pessimists, film lovers and viewers of The Oscars are going to have to begrudgingly accept this harsh reality.
I guess that we'll all have to sit back and stay tuned.
