Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs was diplomatic but clearly disappointed when I spoke to her at this morning’s Oscar nominations about the omission of African American-driven films like Straight Outta Compton, Concussion and Beasts Of No Nation. “Of course I am disappointed, but 
this is not to take away the greatness (of the films nominated). This has been a great year in film, it really has across the board. You are never going to know what is going to appear on the sheet of paper until you see it,” she told me, while acknowledging the Academy’s very public efforts at diversity are moving too slowly. “We have got to speed it up.”
Already the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag from last year’s glaring lack of diversity in the acting nominations is back in action, and you could see at this morning’s announcement for the 88th Annual Academy 
Awards that officials were bracing for another tsunami of bad press regarding the lack of diversity on the list, especially regarding black artists. And despite Ang Lee’s and Guillermo del Toro’s presence in reading the nominations today, there was little to cheer about in the Asian and Latino communities also (with the BIG exception of last year’s big Oscar winner Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s presence with The Revenant).
This is despite big efforts by all concerned to deliver those missing nominations. Netflix, for instance, put a huge campaign behind Idris Elba for Beasts, and Will Smith gave arguably the finest performance of his career in Concussion. Recent National Society Of Film Critics Best Actor winner Michael B. Jordan, star of Creed, was even passed over, even as his co-star Sylvester Stallone was nominated in the Supporting Actor race. Creed‘s young 
director Ryan Coogler was also overlooked in the directing contest.
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The cast of Compton also failed to break through. In fact Compton — produced, directed and starring a strong African American team — received only one nomination, Original Screenplay for Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff, S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus — who are all white. Universal, which distributed the film, also did a very costly print and television campaign for the film aimed at getting into the Best Picture race. It didn’t happen.
Is it fair to blame the Academy for this? Voters have certainly handed Oscars to many black performers in the past and just two years ago gave the Best Picture prize to 12 Years A Slave and Supporting Actress to Lupita Nyong’o. It wasn’t long ago when Denzel Washington and Halle Berry won the top two acting prizes in the same night. And the organization has really tried to shake things up in the membership, with many minorities, not just African Americans, gaining entrance to the exclusive club in recent years — particularly since Boone
Isaacs became president and Dawn Hudson got the CEO job.
Boone Isaacs today pointed out the aforementioned presence among Latinos in today’s nominations with Gonzalez Iñárritu’s Revenant leading all movies with 12 nominations, as well as the high number of women producers and writers on the list this year. But there is no question the headlines hurt. And can the Academy really do anything about a democratic vote in which more than 6,000 members cast a private ballot?
Much of the lack of nominees of color often is said to lay 
more at the hands of the industry and its employment practices and green lights for movies, rather than the Academy, which really is at the end of the filmmaking process and looking to honor quality wherever they may find it. I have to say I was impressed earlier in the fall when I participated in an all-day event at the Academy designed to encourage largely minority filmmakers in their efforts to break into the business. So this year then is particularly heartbreaking in this quest because the quality was clearly there on screen. This morning someone was overheard saying, “Perhaps this year’s Oscar shows theme line ‘We all dream in gold’ should be changed to ‘We all dream in white’. ” Ouch. And certainly not really fair.
Academy’s Board Of Governors in November gave quintessential black director Spike Lee an Honorary Oscar; Boone Isaacs is the first black president of the group and only the third woman to lead it; Chris Rock is back for his second stint hosting the Oscars this year; and one of its producers (with David Hill) is Reginald Hudlin, who, while also expressing enthusiasm for many of the nominees, told me this morning he was also disappointed.
“Of course. I thought there was an 
extraordinary amount of Oscar-worthy work by black artists and they all got overlooked,” he said. “That’s a lot, so it’s very disappointing. But that doesn’t change the fact that those movies are there, those movies are great, audiences love them and they were some of the biggest boxoffice of the year. So America’s clear, the world is clear as they are celebrating them. I hope they are not being punished for their success.”
Of course they are also in good company today with directing snubs for Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg along with the likes of Johnny Depp, Aaron Sorkin and on and on. One person close to process recently predicted to me, “a lot of people will be disappointed on nomination morning.” He was right, but there always are those who get overlooked. You can’t help it.
Even the year’s biggest movie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was blown off the Best Picture list and received just a handful of technical nominations despite Academy efforts to get more popular movies on the list, while the second biggest movie of the year, Jurassic World, was blanked completely. There’s only so much you can do with a slow-moving organization that hands out memberships for life. Still the issue of diversity is one that isn’t going away this year, despite the Academy’s efforts to effect significant change and make the list of nominees look more like the world around us.
Why are you trying to make this a race issue. There are only five nominees and it just so happens that the best five are white. Blacks have won before so it’s not a race issue
The white guy in a film made and starring black people got the films’s only Oscar nod. That pretty much sums this up.
Nobody f n cares about your f n skin color.
Says the racist…
Let’s just start giving out “participation” statues like pee wee football. Do the work get awarded. Same time Will Smith and S.O.O.C. got jacked.
Are you saying that someone who makes the only non prejudicial statement is a racist?
Inarritu and lubezki are not white.
They were nominated.
Also, they were nominated last year.
So this race/white argument is an
exploitative
attempt to continue only one race….
blacks…..
as victims and disadvantaged.
Lubezki is white.
Lubezki is Mexican!
Because sadly it has BECOME a race issue. I’m white and even I CAN SEE there is a pattern. Look at Hollywood Reporter “Diversity” issue. Not 1 person of color.
Reality check, thanks for keeping it real.
Realitycheck thanks for keeping it real
LOL
You mean a pattern of being 12% of the population.
You mean 22%.
22% of the US population consists of people of color.
Nope. The lack of color in the nominations is a direct result of the lack of color in the academy members.
YES!
exactly.
the academy is 94% white, 77% male, and the average age is 63.
Males over 60 make up the smallest demographic of actual movie-goers. The HUGE disparity between the guys giving out these nominations and the movies that actual movie-goers go see is a real problem, if they want the movie-goers to care about the Oscars.
So explain 12 Years a Slave.
1 movie of the 82 others that won.
Good argument
And you didn’t bother to try to explain anything.
Good argument.
51 nominations were given to African-Americans since 2001 in fields from producing to documentaries. Many of these nominations and wins were a first. Even prior to that, the 90s saw the first black director and cinematography nominees.
Hispanics have also entered the fields. This year alone, about 4 Hispanic people are nominated from directing to sound. Emmanuelle Riva, Adriana Barazza, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Benicio del Toro, Demian Bichir, Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron & A.G. Inarritu are just a few. Asians such as Ang Lee & Rinko Kikuchi have also appeared among others.
Iran and Palestine have been recognized in the foreign language categories, a heavily Jewish industry. A woman won Best Director in 2010. 3 women for the first time have been nominated for editing. Strides are being made, but in the emotion-heavy haze of lack of specifics, those with the quota demands forget that if they ever knew it.
“Blacks have won before so it’s not a race issue” Oy vey.
The writer didn’t articulate that at all. He’s arguing the Academy has made strides since 2001. 51 nominations slots have been given to Black people in writing, directing, acting, documentary, costume, music and sound categories, more than prior to 2001. Hispanics, Asians and Arabs have also made greater appearances. The past 2 years have had Mexicans winning Best Director.
The true issue is where African-Americans are in America. There are still massive problems to be addressed in regard to education and employment. Until those are addressed by us and society, many fields and the institutions that manage them will be dominated by white Americans who will more often than not be the cream of the crop.
teriek…you make valid points.
Doesn’t matter. All the nominees should have been black. Nothing else matters!!!
Really, are you that naïve or just one-sided??
“It just so happens”?
How convenient for you.
It’s not about race? What do you think would happen if the Oscar voters were 94% Black and 77% female??
For one, you’re obscuring the complexity of the voting system. You’re arguing as if no one voted for people of color, or that none were nominated. About 12 or so people of color were nominated including R&B singer The Weeknd.
Secondly, if the Academy membership was 94% black and 77% female, the Oscars would look like the BET & NAACP Awards where they’d be 3 or 4 award-worthy actors/writers/directors, and the rest is whatever you can find to fill the gaps, which is usually the bottom of the barrow (so much so any race from white to Korean would be embarrassed to include it). Even the Black Film Critics & African-American Film Critics Awards include white people to fill gaps in order to be respectable.
It’s about time that The Academy president was an artist – not a marketing tool. I never voted for her. She’s not representing us with any sort of pride, she’s like Obama — apologizing for the Academy members, and basically saying that we vote on color lines not artistic excellence. Bye.Bye. You’re fired.
For one, the President of the Academy nor the President of the United States represents one specific ethnic group. It represents the entire body over which it presides. It also fails the logical test that the Academy would elect Boone to “appease” blacks, but then run afoul of them in 2015 and 2016.
Secondly, in 2014 when 12 Years a Slave won, there was wide praise for the “diversity.” 19 people of color were nominated. You know how many were nominated in 2016? 23. Yes, MORE than the year the Academy was praised. The difference is more of the 19 were in the top categories (acting, writing, directing, producing). So the outrage is merely a mask for something else… likely special treatment.
There’s nothing more pathetic than bad losers.
Straight outta Compton should have got a best pic nomination. But the will smith performance– ehh he’s had many better
Disagree. Watched it, but thought it was a horribly directed movie. I mostly enjoyed the performances but considering what it was up against, not surprised it wasn’t nominated for much.
“…while the second biggest movie of the year , Jurassic World was blanked completely.”
……..maybe because it was terrible? Seriously? This argument again? People who want a popularity contest can watch the People’s Choice Awards. Oh, that’s right, nobody does.
…when your movie grosses over a billion dollars, then it must’ve done something right.
Placing enough ads before cartoons on Youtube does not an Oscar make.
Exhibit A for the prosecution – all the Transformers movies. You might as well say Big Macs are the best food due to their success.
Jurassi. World was an amazing movie which is why so many people saw it more than once.
Jurassic World was dumbed down, and that plays well for repeat views for the average person nowadays. The first Jurassic Park was light-years better and 10 times more sophisticated.
Oh fine this is just what the evening will need for upbeat viewing, host Chris Rock making snarly remark after snarly remark about how white the nominees are. If the nominees are sincere about how distressing they find the lack of diversity they should boycott the nominee photo.
Hmmmm…..
This is so stupid. Oscar voters may lack taste, but they are not racist. None of the actor nominees are Jewish. Why doesn’t someone have a fit and say the Academy is biased against Jews?
This is a non issue, brought up by professional whiners,
no actors, but:
Leonard Abrahamson, best director.
Best original screenplay: Ethan and Joel Coen for “Bridge of Spies”; Josh Singer for “Spotlight”; Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff for “Straight Outta Compton.”
Best cinematographer: Emmanuel Lubezki.
Best animated short film: Don Hertzfeld.
there were no non-white nominees in ANY category.
why do they expect everyone to care about these awards?
To answer your last question: Some people just see the movies they like, rather than the racial activism other people wish to make of it. They’re just glad to see Room or The Martian nominated.
And to correct an incorrect assertion you made, here are the NON-WHITE NOMINEES:
1. Frank A. Montaño
2. Rena DeAngelo
3. Martin Hernández
4. The Weeknd
5. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
6. Belly,
7. Jason Daheala Quenneville
8. Ciro Guerra
9. The Weeknd
10. Hiromasa Yonebayashi
11. Yoshiaki Nishimura
11. Jonas Rivera
12. Alê Abreu
teriek, again, good points.
Of course,
But the makeup of the people who go to the movies is very very demographically different than that of the older white males who give out the Oscars.
Not staying it’s right or wrong, just saying it’s very different.
Wider demographics see mainstream Hollywood films. Indie/arthouse cinema are seen more by white people. I’m lucky to have an indie theater 20 minutes from me. I’ve never seen a non-white person there from when I first went to see 2011’s Tree of Life to 2015’s Macbeth.
Now it could be that the theater industry is no longer conducive with viewing trends and convenience-demand technology has brought us. Maybe more indie films would be seen in the streaming model as Beasts of No Nation proved.
One of the aforementioned comments notes the nomination of R&B singer Weeknd, a Canadian person of color, for Earned It, from the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack.
Idris is the most glaring omission. Love Mark Ruffalo but what he did in Spotlight was nothing special.
Mark Ruffalo was amazing in spotlight
Mark Ruffalo was re-playing his Larry Kramer perf.
You’re right, Idris Elba probably should’ve got a nod. Otherwise, I don’t see Straight Outta Compton not getting nominated as race-based snub as it’s more likely age related. NWA had a greater impact on someone in my age range but for Academy voters over 50-years old, chances are the group and their legacy was never on their radar at any point.
A 64-year-old white Republican man suggested Straight Outta Compton to me and said it was a great film and until The Big Short was his favorite film of the year. I myself, am black, but hate hip-hop music. He got me to see that and I really liked it more than an I anticipated.
Also, if you notice, Straight Outta Compton’s only serious nomination was the SAG Award for Best Cast and the Writers Guild Award. The Golden Globes notably didn’t nominate it at all but did nominate Will Smith and Idris Elba. Are they racist?
ahem’s point was that the Academy was NOT racist, that SOC not getting nominated was NOT a race-based snub.
I think everyone knows, the Oscars go to the movies that rich old white hollywood guys thought were the best. Just as MTV awards are for young people, etc.
If they wanted the Oscars to more accurately reflect the opinions of more movie-goers, they would make an effort to tweak the age and race make-up of the Academy,
I think term limits would help a great deal. The fact that you’re in for life is parer of the problem. it’s always gonna skew too old.
I’m not white and many of the films I saw are the best I’ve seen this year. Were deserving people of color left out? Yes. So where deserving white people.
I don’t agree with term limits. What I do think is that they should expand membership to people of color, but more specifically address hiring issues in Hollywood.
But even more specifically, to establish diversity quotas in fields around the nation would weaken certain industries. What needs to be addressed is the issues people of color have internally and externally that keep them out of fields they could contribute to. Until that’s addressed, people of color will always get the crumbs white people leave them.
I enjoyed straight outta compton, im a fan of the NWAs music, both as a collective, and individually, while I personally dont think the movie deserved an oscar, i find it ironic that during this racial upheval surrounding the oscars a movie with so many racial overtones, getting essentially snubbed at the oscars, is kind of hillarious.
If they don’t make movies with Talent Of Color in them, they vote for them. SO MAKING EFFIN MOVIES WITH TALENT OF COLOR!!!
What is wrong with these people? Just because you are of color doesn’t mean you are talented and just because your black doesn’t mean you should get an Oscar nomination.
Stop trying to create chaos where there is none.
There were more deserving nominees than the ones who got nominated this year.
No there weren’t.
Like who? Will smith lol. Straight outta Compton was entertaining but not Oscar worthy, it looked like a made for TV movie
Ryan Coogler who directed Creed.
BETTER DIRECTING THAN RYAN COOLGER:
1. George Miller (Mad Max)
2. Ridley Scott (The Martian)
3. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (The Revenant)
4. Steven Spielberg (Bridge of Spies)
5. Cary Joji Fukanga (Beasts of No Nation)
6. Danny Boyle (Steve Jobs)
7. Adam McKay (The Big Short)
8. Todd Haynes (Carol)
9. Tom McCarthy (Spotlight)
10. Alex Garland (Ex Machina)
11. Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight)
12. László Nemes (Son of Saul)
13. Robert Zemeckis (The Walk)
14. Denis Villeneuve (Sicario)
15. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me Earl & the Dying Girl)
It goes on, and on. Coogler may work on the BET Awards where you only have about 3 or 4 really good actors/craftmen and the rest is whatever you can find to fill the gap, but he won’t make any respectable organization’s list with such competition… and he didn’t from Critics Choice Award to Academy Award.
Idris Elba
Benicio Dell Toronto for starter
One actor nom I disagree with is Eddie redyman. He just played dress up
And he seemed to choose one way to go with the character. Felt Alicia Vikander gave the lead and the much more interesting peforrmance…
Del Toro was already given the Oscar for the same performance in TRAFFIC.
2 different films, character and performances. In Traffic, Del Toro plays an ambivalent Mexican cop who decides to side with the U.S. authorities against the drug cartels employing him. In Sicario, he plays a hitman who uses the U.S. authorities to savagely murder his way towards revenge.
That being said, I thought Albert Finney was better than Del Toro in 2000 and I wouldn’t have nominated this year. Hardy, Stallone, Elba, Rylance, Shannon & Tremblay were better.
Have you seen the films in question and the performances or are you simply defaulting to common rhetoric of those who AREN’T discriminated against and don’t have any perspective on what that life is like? There was never an assertion in this article that any sect of humanity DESERVES anything because of their race; this article merely highlights bias that really can’t be disputed, imo.
How do you know that Anonymous isn’t discriminated against every day? He/she could be gay for all you know. Or Hispanic. Or anything else.
JT..true. Bias is persistent in education & training, hiring, mentoring, promoting, and recognizing those of color throughout Hollywood, and the country as a whole. It is embedded in the American psyche. Some notable strides have been made, but denying it doesn’t make it disappear. Only frank discussions that begin with honest recognition of the reality will help make real progress.
Agreed! Can’t believe this even made the news. People are overly sensitive in 2016 . Butch of babies.
What’s these nominations show is just how fractured, racist, archiac and detached the Movie industry has become. Where as TV found on Cable, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and VERY occaionly on Broadcast, has become incredibaly diverse, forwad thinking and above all – brave. And the only reason for this is the same reason the movie industry is where it’s at today. Technology and the internet.
Its exavlty what the profoundly original David Bowie predicted in an inverview with Bill Paxton in 1999.
SM is dead on with his remarks. Couldn’t have said it better. Sorry if some of the rest of you have your eyes closed and choose to ignore what’s right in front of your face, but it is there.
You’re obscuring a key difference between TV and film. Beasts of No Nation was put on Netflix, exposing it to a larger audience than if it was exclusively put in theaters. Why? A TV/streaming user can stay home, not pay $15, and simply presses a button. The advertising for new shows is plain as day on the channels and streaming services.
With film, you have to interest people to see a film requiring pricey marketing campaigns and star power. You have to have a release strategy that accounts for holidays/events, competition and unforeseen issues. If not enough people go to see Dope or Tangerine, it’s hard to get money to make more. Idris Elba said this. This year alone, the investors kept the wallets closed in regard to investing in indie film.
While I personally hate TV and prefer film, the only answer I see is removing the theater industry, but Tarantino, Nolan & the film junkies will whine.
He should be equally concerned about the lack of women directors. But if producers don’t hire women to direct the features in the first place, they can’t be considered when it’s time for awards!
A) there are far less female directors than male, B) the majority of female directors are busy dominating the indie film industry, C) most Hollywood female directors end up quitting their directing jobs due to creative differences (New Moon, Fifty Shades Darker, Black Panther, Wonder Woman, etc.).
Perhaps because men are more clearly deferred to where women directors are second guessed by male producers leads to the creative differences. And you are cherry picking anyway, lots of men leave due to creative differences.
Is this the same woman who wanted to nominate “Dick Poop” last year?
How is Beasts Of No Nation an African American-driven film?
Can we PLEASE dispense with this racial BS?! Are we supposed to subscribe to a level of tokenism that would completely destroy any credibility these awards still have ?!
I’m afraid I agree with you.
Hold up- how is Halle Berry’s Oscar win in 2002 not long ago?!
No black woman deserved to win since then. However, I would say that if I were a voter, Emayatzy Corinealdi (from Middle of Nowhere) would have been #1 on my list for Best Actress in 2012 over Jennifer Lawrence or Jessica Chastain. I would have also put Middle of Nowhere (Ava DuVernay) on the ballot for Best Original Screenplay and Lorraine Toussaint for Best Supporting Actress.
The Black Film Critics, African-American Film Critics and Independent Spirit Awards honored the film, but the BET Awards ignored it. And most black people have never heard of it, which is why all this complaining is nonsense. If they supported smart black films, more would be made and greater strides could be made.
This is just so offensive how dare she make those remarks people voted based on what they felt now she and chris Rock want to dictate how people should feel
Idris same with your hashtag
Where’s all the Asians. Spanish.
I, too, think Idris Elba is the most glaring omission, but it was an extremely tough category. I honestly believe the Academy should return to 10 nominees for best picture, allowing voters to nominate their 5 favourite films in order. I think, had that been allowed, Compton and Carol, or even Star Wars might be best picture nominees.
Iris Elba is superb but agreed the rest being brandished was only so-so
Elba was a great performance but I think if anything it was more political – not awarding a VOD release than racial. That was a tough category too and it didn’t help his young co-star was a show-stealer, not unlike Jacob Tremblay in ROOM.
I am glad the Academy voters still base their vote on talent and not political correctness.
Great. All the “racism doesn’t exist” people are coming out of their caves now…
It’s not that it doesn’t exist. It just doesn’t apply here. SOC was not great and BONN got a tiny theatrical release to get nominated to get more people to watch it on Netflix so it’s a nonstarter.
CPo – SOC was so “not great” it made almost every top 10 list and predictor award before the Oscars….PGA & AFI best of lists…it should’ve been nominated
So the two movies that were made by black directors and had black actors BOTH only received nominations for the white supporting actor (Creed) and the white screenwriters (SOC)….that’s pathetic
I thought the directing of SOC was terrible so for me, especially after watching most of the other movies, it was definitely not one of the best movies of the year. It’s a tough competition and it just didn’t stack up. i didn’t watch Creed but SOC definitely should’ve had a different director.
As I said, some people choose to ignore what is right in front of their face, and stick their heads in the ground hoping it will go away, so to them, it simply doesn’t exist.
How often do you attend a movie when the primary cast members don’t look like you? If there are too many african Americans then it’s a black movie and it puts aside. Just think of the backlash at the announcement that the Bond would be black or a primary Star Wars character as well. The dialogue is not to diminish the art of those nominated but to at least acknowledge how frequently the talent of others is blindly ignored and diminished.
Anonymous…well said.
It makes me nuts that the general public thinks that the Academy Members all get together in one group and decide “Oh, we cant vote for them, they are Black. The same when they dish the big money makers. Like the story said, the Academy is the end result. It’s up to the studios to promote diversity in their films.
Would anyone writing these incessant “Oscars are too white” articles dare to write an “Oscars are too black” or “Oscars are too brown” article? Of course not because they’d be called racist. Memo to the racist writing this article – hating white people is just as racist as hating blacks or browns or yellows or whatever other color.
Sorry, but even in my deepest dreams I couldn’t fathom the possibility that ever occurring. The privileged have a difficult time associated those of us who lack that advantage. We wait and things will get better. A major award every 10 or so years doesn’t meet the criteria of significant progress. Especially in the shadow of decades of being overlooked and discounted as inferior.
No it isn’t and you know it. Racism (like sexism and homophobia) is not a level paying field, that’s the point. It requires a group with power and a group without power for the damaging effects of whatever bigotry is involved to have effect. That’s why “reverse” whatever is a load of crap.
Spoken like a racist and a sexist.
How so?
Yes. If all 20 acting nominees were people of color (especially 2 years in a row), I would write that the field was biased. Of course, that would never happen.
In what version of reality would the Oscars be “too black”? The entire point of this post is that NO people of color were even nominated. You’re being willfully obtuse. Even if every exceptional performance were nominated this year the nominees list would still be overwhelmingly white. We want people of color’s efforts to be recognized. It seems to me the only hatred is coming, naturally, from white people who can’t even stomach the thought of a person of color being recognized for accomplishing anything.
Some of these attitudes result from the obvious fact that blacks constitute only 12% of the population. Of course whites will have a majority of the awards, just as blacks have a majority of awards in Nigeria. It doesn’t make it racist. It is simply reality.
To those who claim the nominations are a pure meritocracy:
1. The Academy’s percentage of white men is nearly three times their percentage in the population as a whole.
2. Voters don’t see every movie — it’s impossible. They only see the movies that they’re drawn to. If your voters are overwhelmingly one particular demographic, then it’s natural that the taste of that demographic is overrepresented. A lot of voters didn’t even bother to see films like Straight Outta Compton.
I think you hit the nail on the head – this rings true.
” A lot of voters didn’t even bother to see films like Straight Outta Compton.”
Citation needed.
And they voted for 12 Years a Slave without seeing it which led to a win. In two years the voters suddenly turned racist?
LOL. You win the debate tonight.
Not true, they did see it; 12 Years was a Brad Pitt produced award style movie with a clear injustice that academy voters could love and feel good about watching and voting for. Compton is about a culture they don’t understand so they didn’t watch and if they did, didn’t really get.
Well they claim they never saw 12 Years a Slave when they voted for it and I’m going to take their word over yours.
As a voter I’ll take my direct experience of discussing this over your vague “they claim.”
Impasse.
It was reported in the Los Angeles Times. Just keep digging your hole, this keeps getting better.
So this is what it’s come down to? Yo’re just going to say the voters are lying because it doesn’t fit in with what you wish was true?
Ah, so your “direct experience of discussing this” can determine what movies everybody has seen? Pretty fancy and useless gift you have there.
I saw 96 films in 2015. There’s no film in the upper categories I have not seen. If I can see that many, the voters can with the free screeners they get. And by the way, it was a 64-year-old white Republican man who suggested I see black films like Dope and Straight Outta Compton, saying I would identify with the characters as they wished to break from stereotypes (former) and fight injustice (latter).
So your broad stroke of the membership and older white people in general seems predetermined yet unfounded as you don’t know what they saw or voted for. You probably don’t even know how the voting rules work and how people can get votes and still not make it.
LZ…I agree.
I’ll be boycotting the Oscar’s starting this year, until the blockade on BLACK, ASIAN & LATIN participants is CORRECTED!!!!
I will be pushing that CONCEPT until it changes; don’t worry… you’ll see it!
I’ll so miss you, bro.
Not!!!
Agreed! Wouldn’t it also make a powerful statement if all the major black, brown and Asian actors, boycotted the Oscars! That In addition to Chris Rock refusing to officiate the broadcast. #OscarBoycott
It probably wouldn’t work in the long run and and all the actors/actresses including Chris Rock would be too afraid, but it would raise a few eyebrows for a day or so.
Maybe if you guys got off your butts to see independent black, Latino and Asian films, maybe investors would see a market in developing such films. Boycott the Academy all you want. It will not make a difference in giving financial incentive to develop such works and the campaigns behind them to get them recognition. Nor will it help people of color make films beyond the stereotypical expectation of slavery, racism, crime, rappers and such.
In the end… these awards don’t really matter. Only the film itself in the eyes of the audience who enjoys them. It truly is silly to see how we make movies compete against themselves. Like they’re a sports team trying to make it through the playoffs. And then we forget who wins a few months later.
When white people cease to have representation in any medium, then you tell black, hispanics, asians any other people of color what a “non-issue” is. “Creed” has a black director, writer, leading man, supporting cast and a woman D.P. and the white guy is the only nomination pulled from the film. “Beasts of No Nation”, “Straight Outta Compton”, “Tangerine” and “Chi-raq” all have better reviews than “Joy”, “The Danish Girl” and “Trumbo”.
Yea and Joy the Danish Girl and Trumbo didn’t get nominated for best picture did they, so what’s your point? Just because a movie gets better reviews than another one does not determine how well the actors performed and if they deserved to be nominated or not.
It’s not about representing race. It’s about people voting for what they’re favorite works are. Many voters likely did for vote for minorities, but the voting rules stress who your #1 choice is.
Secondly, how many BAFTAs, Golden Globes, DGA, WGA & SAG awards are Tangerine and Chi-Raq nominated for? How many major directing nods did Ryan Coogler or F. Gary Gray (Compton) get this award season? I personally can name 10 examples of better directorial work. Idris Elba like Jacob Tremblay while good was left out of many organizations and both were snubbed too. Straight Outta Compton’s most nominated aspect was the screenplay. It was left out of the Globes & BAFTAs.
Also, Joy, Trumbo & The Danish Girl were NOT nominated for the substantive categories of Best Picture, Director or Screenplay. They were nominated for the specific aspects for which they most praised (acting, art design or costumes). So your criticism lacks the insight of specifics. It sounds more like, give me a spot because I’m black and under-represented. I wouldn’t snub a single deserving person on that basis, white or not.