The Oscars Are Way Too White, Again

For the second year in a row, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs has mispronounced the name of an Oscar nominee.

Will Smith for “Concussion”, Idris Elba for “Beasts of No Nation” and Michael B. Jordan for “Creed” were among those expected to be nominated but noticeably left off the list.

Despite efforts to diversify, the demographic makeup of the Film Academy is still predominantly older white men, and admission to become a voting member of the Academy requires a personal recommendation from a current member.

The only note of diversity in the lead categories is Mexican director Alejandro G. Inarritu for “The Revenant”.

The Academy failed to give SOC a nomination for Best Picture, despite the wild amount of success the film has seen.

Diversity, in short, isn’t about simply including as many non-white men as possible. Last year, the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite began trending on Twitter, and telecast host Neil Patrick Harris opened the show by saying, “Tonight we honor Hollywood’s best and whitest”. All of them acted circles around his mumbling Rocky Balboa character (which, by the way, makes him one of those rare actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character). “Be that as it may, I know one thing for sure, Chris Rock will ‘bring it!’ So, yes, I will tune in and follow the live-tweeting feeds, as usual”.

While it earned some nods for cinematography and music, The Hateful Eight was a surprising omission in a number of the bigger categories, including Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director for Quentin Tarantino.

Straight Outta Compton, the only film made up of a majority black cast, was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

“What is important is that this entire conversation of diversity is here and we are talking about it”, Isaacs said.

Straight Outta Compton was thought to be locked in for a Best Picture nomination after getting recognized by the Screen Actors Guild and PGA for the same award.

Film producer and director Reginald Hudlin, who is co-producer of this year’s Oscar telecast, called the situation “frustrating”. Still, for fans of this resurrected franchise the five nominations the movie did receive, mostly in technical categories, felt like a consolation prize. The same goes for Helen Mirren, who didn’t score either a best actress nomination for Woman in Gold or a best supporting actress nomination for Trumbo.