This year will have the Whitest Oscars Ceremony Since…last year. There have been no nominees of color for best actor or director, despite the fact that plenty of “Black” films have been released in the year of 2015.
Take Straight Outta Compton: The movie was a success, had great reviews all over the nation. It even received recognition from the Oscars. However, the white writers of the movie, Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff, were the only ones nominated, for Best Screenplay. None of it’s actors have been nominated.
Idris Elba was expected to receive a nomination for the great movie Beast of No Nation. He failed to receive one. Instead, Christian Bale received a nomination for The Big Short.
Even Creed was pushed to the side. Its Black director and Black leading actor didn’t receive recognition for their excellent work. Instead, Sylvester Stallone received a nomination.
This is a pattern in the Oscars ceremony. Last year, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs addressed the decade-long controversy about the lack of diversity at the Oscars.
“The Academy has no power over Hollywood. We have nothing to do with hiring. What we can do, however, is get them to widen their normal stream of thought”
Once the nominees were announced, Twitter almost immediately began to voice their opinions and began to circulate last year’s hash tag for the Oscars, #OscarsSoWhite.
Last year, Selma did receive an award for Best Picture, but not for Best Actor Or Best Director.
Surprisingly enough, there are some notable nominees of color. Musician The Weeknd was nominated in the Original Song category for the 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack “Earned It,” which became a huge hit on the charts.
With Chris Rock as this year’s host, all we can do is cross our fingers and hope that he gives enough bitter humor for the people who make the Oscar Nominations to open their eyes.
Featured Image is by Cliff via Flickr, available under a Creative Commons license.
