#Oscarsnotsowhite, right?
After a two-year diversity drought in its acting categories, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences showered nominations on six African-American themed films, at least 10 black actors and filmmakers, and an Indian adventure, Lion, to boot. The directing nominations had no women; but Barry Jenkins, a young black director, scored for Moonlight — plus Ava DuVernay’s 13th was nominated in the Documentary Feature category, putting her in competition with I Am Not Your Negro from Raoul Peck and OJ: Made In America from Ezra Edelman. The black-themed Best Picture nominees were Moonlight, Fences and Hidden Figures.
Denzel Washington, Ruth Negga, Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis all had acting nominations. In the other categories, Moonlight’s editor Joi McMillon, an African-American woman, shared a nomination with Nat Sanders. Writing nominations went to Jenkins, Tarell Alvin McCraney and August Wilson. Kimberly Steward shared a producing nomination for Manchester By The Sea.
While the number of black nominees was unusually large, in a sense it marked a return to form, at least as it was known in the decade preceding 2014, when 12 Years A Slave became the first film from a black director — in this case, Steve McQueen — ever to win the Best Picture Oscar. No black filmmaker has yet won the Directing Oscar. But in the last four years, the prize went to an Asian or Hispanic director (in fact, the Multi-Ethnic Media Coalition made of of Hispanic, Asian and American Indian groups said today they were disappointed at again being “noticeably underrepresented or not represented at all.”) And black actors, in the decade culminating in 2014, received a share of nominations and Oscars approximately matching their share of the U.S. population.
But the two-year shutout provoked a severe backlash, led by the #OscarsSoWhite social media campaign, followed by a strong response from the Academy, which on January 22 of last year announced a five-year drive to diversify its membership, and immediate steps to add women and ethnically diverse members to its governing board.
In truth, Hollywood has changed a great deal in the last year; but what media types like to call The Narrative has clearly shifted, as the current crop of nominees once more aligns the film business with its professed commitment to inclusiveness and progressive ideals.
The shift was already palpable at the Golden Globes ceremony on January 8, when Meryl Streep, while excoriating Donald Trump, looked around the room and proclaimed it wonderfully diverse. “What is Hollywood anyway?” Streep asked, pointing to actors from Kenya, Ethiopia, and, in the case of Viola Davis — who received her third acting nomination today, as Best Supporting Actress for Fences — South Carolina. “It’s just a bunch of people from other places.”
With a strong field of black-themed films — including Moonlight, Fences, Hidden Figures and Loving — there had been little doubt that this year would bring a strong showing for people of color. But the diversity wave was momentarily broken when The Birth Of A Nation, a Nat Turner slave rebellion story that had widely been viewed as the early best picture front-runner, crashed amid the uproar over renewed discussion of the past rape acquittal of its star-writer-director-producer Nate Parker. (On Tuesday, Birth took no nominations.)
Taking no chances, the Academy changed its procedures for announcing the nominations, shutting the media out of what used to be a live event, and substituting video presentations by 11 past honorees. (On its website, the sound and video were maddeningly out of sync throughout the presentation.) Though the Academy membership still skews old, white and male — the group’s aggressive diversity initiative won’t have full effect for years — no old, white, non-Hispanic figured among the video presenters. In fact there was only one straight white man in the group, 39-year-old director Jason Reitman. The rest including Terrence Howard, Jennifer Hudson, Ken Watanabe, Guillermo del Toro, and Glenn Close and Lance Black represented what the Academy has said it intends to become, a diverse coalition of the talented.
No love for Taraji P. Henson, though. I think she is more deserving than Meryl Streep this year.
Ok. Good job Hollywood. You fixed your own PR nightmare. Now on to Asian and Hispanic actors? #oscarsnotsoasian
Why doesn’t Dev Patel (”Lion”) count in this article about diversity? He’s the 1st Asian guy to get an Oscar acting nod since 2003.
Dev Patel is of Indian descent. And born in England.
Born in Kenya, raised in England.
Patel’s still an actor of color. He may be a citizen of England, but his parents are Gujarati Hindu Indians. Patel identifies as Indian and is proud of his heritage.
I got that part. That wasn’t my point, but clarifying it would just lead to an irrelevant discussion on identity.
Billy Bob – I agree – the two glaring omissions from Best Actress were Annette Benning and Taraji P Henson. I love Meryl but to me these two actresses would have edged her out this year.
Dev Patel should definitely count in there – and there is surely a lack of Asian. I believe Ben Kingsley half Indian as well so that may be why they didn’t make note of Dev here but Patel is actually considered the third Indian nominated in the history of the Academy – counting Merle Oberon and Ben Kingsley as the first two. FYI
Patel cheated. He’s a Lead in the supporting category.
I don’t think the Academy is in the habit of nominating someone just because they’re African-American in previous years when there weren’t too many viable candidates. There’s no quota system. This year, there are many deserving African-American actors.
I still think Taraji P. Henson should have a nomination.
Mr. Cieply, lets not get ahead of ourselves. The diversity of nominations was a step in the right direction, but don’t pop the bubbly just yet. You referred to a 2 year drought of majority monochromatic proceedings. One OSCAR cycle does not recompense make. If the same thing happens next year with equal representation, then this article might have more teeth. If it goes back to the way it was, it is and was, all for naught.
“One OSCAR cycle does not recompense make.”
But apparently two cycles with just white nominees is enough to start a revolution over. The Academy gave into your bullying. You won. Move on now.
Anonymous – it . really has nothing to do with Academy if you want to know the truth – it has to do with the studios and distribution companies making and buying films that are diverse – the Big Studios in particular have been known to buy what they believe is a sure bet for the box office -that is changing – and because of that change – the Academy recognizes what’s out there. I’m not saying the Academy is perfect – but it really starts with the product that is released. Maybe we should say the studios were forced to release more content that is diverse thus giving the Academy a better spectrum to choose from and a wealth of talent this year. But the Oscars So White campaign was started really by Jada Pinkett Smith because she felt her husband deserved an award for Concussion – he did not – however Selma certainly did! But blame Paramount for that – they never sent screeners to any of us and the screenings of the film were lean – When I did see it – I couldn’t understand why it was not nominated for Best Pic and director – but Paramount did not make a push for it – I think they really blew that chance.
All nominations should be based on merit not skin color.
So you are effectively calling for a racial quota system going forward; not sure how that aligns with artistic freedom or integrity. Maybe the progressives in Hollywood could hire more non-white people in management, production and talent positions? The racism you’re protesting is entirely within Hollywood and can be fixed if they really want to.
Good lord. This is not about quotas. This is about representation on screen and off screen. Simple as that. And yes, if Hollywood REALLY wanted to fix this issue, they would. But they don’t. And they won’t. In the meantime, they’ll continue to be criticized.
What a joke! “Silence” had more drama in any 20 minutes than “Moonlight”, which was a decent enough film and did a good job portraying the protagonists’s tough life. But it left one wondering “Wen is anything going to happen”?
Oh well, the country is divided and it creeps into everything- even art. More’s the pity.
Don’t quit your day job. MANCHESTER BY THE SEA had absolutely NO ACTION or real drama. Casey Affleck played himself like he does in EVERY role yet both were nominated.
Don’t hear you comment about that.y
Actually, you shouldn’t quit your day job in the least. If your too inept not realize that MANCHESTER BY THE SEA isn’t an action film, then you must not be bright by any accounts.
The film is a drama & to say MANCHESTER BY THE SEA doesn’t have “no real drama” really makes you ignorantly shallow in your perception. The film is about guilt and loss which are strong dramatic elements of emotion. The film is a nuanced and insightful story, that although seemingly simple, is achingly complex. The film is an affecting drama with full-bodied characters.
As for Casey Affleck’s performance, it is a layer upon layer of a humane portrayal of grief and those who choose to let it define them until the unspeakable can be spoken. All actors play themselves to a certain extent (some more then others like Will Smith or Tom Cruise). Affleck shows emotional and transformational characteristic depth which are essentials to great acting. Your argument is entirely irrelevant with no validation.
On the flip side, “restrained performance” doesn’t necessarily mean real drama, neither does “nuanced emotion.” I found the film very Lonergan-esque: visually flat — a theater person doing serviceable coverage to move the story forward, monotonous (“orchestral” interludes with the no-dialogue montage) and very one note re: Affleck’s “complex” performance. But, nice try on the pretentious PR.
I hope there’s a segment at the Oscars where Ryan Gosling comes out on stage and lectures John Legend on the importance of diversity.
Here we go again….claiming the nominations are diverse but little or no Hispanics or Asians nominated.
True.
Dev Patel is from India and is Asian.
What Hispanic actor should have been nominated?
Shouldn’t this be based on merit not ethnicity?
Shameful reactions here, only focused on African-Americans – while ignoring Hispanics again and again, which are a much larger group. Part of Hollywood (and African-American) long-held racist views against Hispanics? Little wonder so many Hispanics were willing to vote for Trump.
Which Hispanics should’ve been nominated this year? Legit question.
I remember that great video by Michael Nesmith and quote it here:
“Just to prove a point…”
But why no nod to director Denzel?!?
Uh. Because FENCES was hammy canned theatre, maybe? Though at least it was better than the 2 hour NASA sitcom HIDDEN FIGURES. Eek.
Not so white at all. Look at the diversity: an overwhelming number of second-generation Asian Americans, Latino filmmakers, and stunning regional narratives from the First Nations communities. Oh, wait.
What a joke.
All nominations should be based on merit not skin color.
I’m pleased the academy was able to please the media. No need to award the most talented film nor talent…let’s just make sure we are nominating the correct amount of African Americans.
Oh so true. This isn’t diversity or equality. This just causes separation.
Are you saying that these black nominees were not worthy of nominations? Because this isn’t the Academy nominating NORBIT or BIG MOMMA’S HOUSE. There you’d have a point. Here you dont. These are accomplished actors who turned in worthy performances this year because the films they were nominated for were actually made — which is the whole point.
That said, who would you rather see nominated instead of Davis, Washington, Negga, Ali, Harris, Spencer?
Funny how “most talented” always equates to white to so many of you.
So, if there nothing as good as Moonlight or Hidden Figures during a particular year, what is the Academy supposed to do about it? Just nominate stuff like White Chicks or Soul Plane because of diversity? The complaint should be that there are not enough good diverse movies being made, not which movies get awards.
Nobody is saying Soul Plane should be nominated for an Oscar or that untalented actors should be nominated. It’s amazing how people blatantly miss the point all to try to justify their desire to exclude non-whites.
You’re not counting Dev Patel in that six then? Hmm…not diverse enough?
It went from #OscarsSoWhite to #OscarsSoBlack. Where are the Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans? In fact, Latinos are a larger percentage of the population than blacks.
lin manuel miranda got nominated. I am happy for that.
Mr. Cieply, it’s great that you list all 6 black Oscar-nominated actors in this article about diversity, but don’t Asian actors count? Why didn’t you include Dev Patel from ”Lion”? He’s the first Asian guy nominated for acting since 2003 (Ken Watanabe, ”The Last Samurai,” who was part of today’s Oscar announcements). Plus, Patel finally made the Oscar cut after being snubbed in 2009 for ”Slumdog Millionaire” … even though he had been nominated by SAG and BAFTA, and was a member of the SAG-winning Ensemble.
#OscarsYouCanShutUpAboutRaceNow
Nope.
I think we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. The movie with the most nominations (and will probably have the most wins) has a nearly all white cast even though it is about jazz. And if that wasn’t bad enough, a white actor (Gosling) plays a savior of jazz in the movie.
So what do we do, give it to Moonlight? Hailed as a “lyrical, poetic” masterpiece — i.e., a ripoff from the aesthetics and mis-en-scene of the Taiwanese New Wave — re-sampled for audiences (and critics, I might add) who are clueless about cinema outside the patronizing walls of Telluride, Sundance and Hollywood; wall builders of every stripe, I might add.
“Black Themes”… Really?
EVERYONE should get a nomination (trophy) just for participating! Forget about talent. Worked for all those kids who have now grown up to be spoiled, entitled jerks! Yay!
Ironic in 2017 that white liberal Hollywood still wants to judge people by the color of their skin as opposed to the content of their character. Dr. King would be appalled.
These movies would have gotten nominated even without the controversy — that’s what is frustrating– make great diverse films and they will get nominated
Just want to say “Congrats” to Joi McMillon for being the FIRST African-American female Editor to get an Oscar nomination.
Emma Stone played a half-Asian woman once. Doesn’t that count for Diversity? Too bad Tilda got snubbed that would have helped make this year the most diverse ever!
Really never heard of any of these “diverse” films. Seems like they are filling a quota.