A reader named Jason sent in this letter this morning:
I’m a huge fan of your site. I’m going to tell you that I’m a black man that loves movies ever since I was born. I read alot of reviews about movies. Most critics I don’t really care for. In all honesty, I dont think most critics are good at their jobs.
To tell you the truth, you are my favorite critic. Roger Ebert was a genius at his craft. I always enjoys reading and listening to his reviews about movies because he always dug deeper into what a movie was about. Most critics don’t do that. Another thing that I loved about Ebert, he understood race. He cared about the stories being told about black people. I always felt that he cared about us. Most critics I don’t get that sense from them. I dont get the feeling that they understand or even care about black or minority lives. Through Ebert’s writing, I got a sense that he cared about our journey and our lives. I got a sense he was open to us. He was intrigued by us. He had a respect for us that most critics do not.
This leads me to you. I love your website because you always understand the plight of black people. You care that we are represented and if we are not, you are angry and vocal about it. Most critics are white men and women. I always get the feeling they don’t know the feeling of rejection that black people go through. And how that can lead to anger, isolation, resentment, violence and so on.
I’m writing you because I’m so angry that the Academy has, yet again, disrespected me and my community. I understand that it is not completely their fault. I blame the CEOs of the studios, executive producers, actors, directors, etc. on the racism that is going on in Hollywood and the rest of the nation.
I’m just so angry right now because, yet again, hollywood has said my life is not important. White men have spoken and said, “We are the only ones who should be heard, applauded, and rewarded.” We are white men, and we are the ones that matter.
I’m writing you because I’m sad because to them, I mean nothing. And what do I do with that? Do I fight them or wait for them to die? I just want you to take them to task for their blatant disrepect and racist behavior.”
Here’s the good news. They’re going to have to deal with this being the lead story of the day, with very little breathing room for anything else. They’re going to have to deal with Chris Rock, who will certainly point out the obvious in a cutting way. Maybe they saw it coming, maybe they didn’t but it’s clear to me that the Academy specifically seems to be actively trying to marginalize itself from the rest of the film industry and from ticket buyers. They pick what they like. Or more importantly, and the dirty little secret most people don’t know about the Oscar voters? They pick what people put in front of them, what they are told to pick, with slight variations here or there. Many of them only watch a small pile of films. What’s clear to me is that things are changing, dramatically, around them. The Screen Actors Guild nominated Beasts of No Nation AND Straight Outta Compton. The Producers Guild nominated Straight Outta Compton and the AFI honored it. So did the Writers Guild.
The film critics play a huge part in shaping the narrative and that was what Roger Ebert – and Roger Ebert alone – did. He made it almost a lifelong ambition to fight for fairness and diversity. Most film critics take their job too “seriously” to care about diversity because they’re only supposed care about the art of film, forgetting, of course, that our relationship art or entertainment is entirely subjective. Our opinions are shaped by our experiences. Getting the good parts – the Oscar worthy parts – is about opportunity. When Viola Davis almost won – and should have won – for The Help – everyone said, oh, she’ll be fine. She’ll get many more chances. Like when? If you can’t get the parts, you can’t get the Oscars. If you can’t get the Oscars, you can’t get the parts. See how that works?
The Academy’s five slot ballot brings out their worst prejudices because it is, in effect, a mirror. They want to be thought of as the center of things – not just the only people who matter but the only people being seen as caring. They want to reward the one white guy who didn’t own slaves, or the one white guy who stood up for native Americans. This year, they did open their minds up to Brooklyn and Room and even Mad Max – all films that don’t represent the “one white guy who” – but a movie like Straight Outta Compton doesn’t paint the “One White Guy Who” as the one good guy, or Creed, which makes Michael B. Jordan, and not Sylvester Stallone, the hero and the emotional center.
What the Academy is doing with their membership is trying to change the demographic. Although the major categories – with the exception of Inarritu – are flat white (hey, Starbucks has a name for the Oscars – “Flat White”) the short categories, the documentary categories and the foreign language represent people from all over the world. Diversity flourishes when you move past the stars and most powerful players.
I am not sure I will live long enough to see them really change. They’re likely to go extinct before they really change. But I’d just like to say to you, Jason, that the world is changing. The old white guard is shrinking. I look at the Spirit Award nominations and the Screen Actors Guild and Producers Guild and I see change. It isn’t enough to change the Oscars, clearly, but in Ryan Coogler and F. Gary Gray and Ava DuVernay and Gina Prince Bythewood’s success those doors are being opened anyway – it is the Academy who will be left behind, the Oscars that will be forgotten, left sitting on the front stoop, covered in dust, while all of the footprints run past it, barely noticing it’s there.
Just remember this: success is the best revenge.
Once again, America must must be draconian politically correct. Once again merit must be thrown out so everyone can get a participant award. The Oscars need to create one for “Just Being Black” in a movie, regardless of how awful or unrarkable, the performance. Forget all the past actors who never won an Oscar and deserved it.
It isn’t enough that blacks, the only race in America with their own awards, TV channel, etc and no other race is included. Oh sure they give lip service to Hispanics etc but the other so called minorities in film never get awards from the black only award shows. Why is that? Because blacks are the real racists.
Overbrooke Entertainment need to step up their game.
i dont need hollywood or bollywood to validate my life.
“I’m just so angry right now because, yet again, hollywood has said my life is not important.”
Is this a joke?
The DGA just announced their nominations for TV yesterday. To contrast with film — 12 women received directing nominations. Three African-American directors, two of them women, are up in the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Miniseries category. And there is no stink of ‘affirmative action’ about any of these nods. Television has become the place where a new wave of directors can properly find projects that will then be properly promoted. This is still a rarity in Hollywood.
FYI, for Best Documentary, they went three of five with the Academy — What Happened Miss Simone, Amy and Cartel Land. The other two were Meru and Going Clear!
It’s also of note that one of the African-American tv directors, Rees, is a lesbian. It makes me think if Haynes did some tv maybe he too could finally be honored by the DGA.
People seem to have forgotten that when SOC was released the movie got a lot of flack for not addressing (whitewashing if you will) the misogyny and violence against women that was present in both in the lyrics they wrote and in their actual deeds. I get that old men will not vote for a movie about gangster rappers, but when you antagonize the women of the academy as well it gets kind of hard to get a nomination. I would guess that Creed was possibly closer to a nomination and could have gotten in with the old straight ten system (it just made number 10 on my Hollywood-Elsewhere ballot).
Aww, poor baby, so Straight Outta Compton wasn’t nominated?….GET in freakin’ LINE behind the people complaining about Inside Out not being nominated for Picture! What the heck was up with THAT?? We even saved it a spot, by keeping the ten-nomination rule this year!
(Actually, we do know the reason for that, it was their new obsession with doing whatever the Golden Globes and NBOR tell them to do, I was just going with the joke.)
At least with Chris Rock hosting this year, he can do the same “Mall theater” stunt, and find out how many black moviegoers didn’t see Bridge of Spies or Spotlight, but went to see Ride Along 2.
Does anybody have a clue why Beasts of No Nation resonated strongly with the SAG but not with the Academy? In many ways Elba’s role is as Oscar-baity as Eddie Redmayne’s in the Danish Girl. Indeed Forest Whitaker won for a similar type of role. And Elba was genius in the part, and you can’t tell me that most of mainstream Hollywood wouldn’t love seeing him in greater prominence in big parts. So WHY did he miss? Did Netflix’s rollout work for actors but not the larger voting body?
Well some user was bullshiting that Beasts was not eligible and I looked into that and it was definitely eligible.
Definitely eligible. Netflix made sure of that. Netflix took specific care to be sure that it followed Academy guidelines for eligibility.
I just wish that I had the opportunity to have seen the movie in the theatre and not at home. I love going to the theatre and I feel like I would’ve liked the movie even more than I did watching it in my living room.
Beasts made $90K in theatres and was released for two weeks. I wish that somehow Netflix and the theatres can work together so that all future releases can be seen both ways but it just won’t happen.
I feel like if it was released in theatres it would have had a worse rin than Jobs and it would have been the movie that failed instead of the movie that tried something new.
Does anybody have a clue why Beasts of No Nation resonated strongly with
the SAG but not with the Academy? …Did Netflix’s rollout work for actors but not the larger voting body?
GregoireNYC, there’s are essays that cold be written about this but I think it helps if we keep it clear and simple. (“simple” is not my strong suit, but I’ll fling in and try.)
The Academy is largely composed of members who came up through the studio system, right? I’d say at 5000 of the 6000 Oscar voters are still deeply beholden in one way or another to the Big 5 studios.
To these people, the new financial model Netflix has introduced represents a direct threat to their familiar Mothership livelihood. Many of them can’t see a way to adapt to this new model or to absorb it.
Netflix is a threat to the Oscars status quo.
But actors — especially SAG-AFTRA members who live and work all across the country, 10s of 1000s of them far from Hollywood — can only see Netflix as just one more OPPORTUNITY. Netflix to a working actor should represent just one more great place that finances movies and pays actors to play roles.
Netflix is a new exciting option to a SAG-AFTRA member.
(worth mentioning, actors in the Academy sung the praises of Beasts of No Nation more than any other type of filmmaker in Hollywood.)
It has little to do with whether Idris Elba resonated with Oscar voters — I think too many of them simply regard the whole idea of movies that can be seen at home with suspicion and actual fear.
It disrupts something that’s very important to a lot of Oscar voters: “What Does All This Mean for My $10 Million Salary?” They sort of enjoy those $10 million paydays, so why would they want to validate any movie distribution system that would upset their apple cart?
Brilliant! Actually that was very simply put. Thank you.
More accurately, it’s because being screened in a medium other than NY/LA theaters, like television, disqualifies a movie from competing for Best Picture. (Documentary has different rules.)
That’s why everyone was so shocked about Fahrenheit 9/11 being “snubbed” from a Picture nomination, after Michael Moore tried to “take his movie to the people” online.
According to the Academy, the Oscars are a MOVIE award, and movies are shown in theaters. No one’s going to start blurring tech issues with them anytime soon.
You mean figuratively disqualified, right? Because the movie was *definitely* qualified for nomination.
“More accurately, it’s because being screened in a medium other than NY/LA theaters, like television, disqualifies a movie from competing for Best Picture”
FALSE
Eric,
The wording of the Academy rule on screening venues specifically says that a movie cannot “FIRST” screen on television.
But Netflix execs confirmed with the Academy: “SIMULTANEOUS” debuts on TV and in theaters on the same day are definitely eligible.
On the day Beasts of No Nation became available to Netflix subscribers, the film screened in 19 different US markets (naturally including NY and LA), and this made it absolutely unquestionably eligible for Oscar awards consideration.
Do you seriously think that nobody at Netflix thought this through and did what they needed to do in order for Beasts of No Nation to qualify for awards this year?
Do you seriously think I would jump in here with a helpful explanation if I didn’t have my facts straight?
The whole point of Netflix entering the big leagues this way is so they
could make a dramatic entry, to go head-to-head with the studio stranglehold on distribution models.
If you’re going to go head-to-head with me with a comment that begins “More accurately…” you should do your homework (just Google it) and be sure that what you say is factually accurate, ok?
As it is though, your false argument is FALSE.
Very well-said, Ryan. But this phrase made me laugh: ”I think too many of them simply regard the whole idea of movies that can be seen at home with suspicion and actual fear.”
But isn’t that how many Academy voters see the Oscar nominees: at home on their screeners? 😉
It was released in theaters for 2 weeks and made less revenue than an hour of filming cost. Why was it even nominated?
Black actors have been recognized by AMPAS in the last 20 years (M’onique, Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis, Denzel Washington, Cuba Gooding Jr.,, Lupita n’Yongo). Try being an Asian-American actor in Hollywood and you’ll really feel marginalized by the film industry. I think you have to go back to 1957 to find Ushi Yumeko (sp) winning best supporting actress for “Sayanora”. The only Asian actors I can think of who are even working in Hollywood are Sandra Oh, Lucy Chin, and Bobby Lee (just kidding). Viola Davis was right when she said it has to do with opportunity. One has to remember that this was such a competitive year in all acting categories. Heh! How about AMPAS not embracing old white English actresses this year? Maggie Smith was SHUNNED for “The Lady in the Van”. (just kidding, . . . well, maybe not.)
And yet, there is international diversity in the actress categories (Australian, British, Irish, Swedish). This year? I’m willing to give AMPAS a break. Many people have their favorites. Not everybody can be nominated.
For the record, the ”Sayonara” actress was Miyoshi Umeki. She went on to play Mrs. Livingston in TV’s ”The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” and starred on Broadway in ”Flower Drum Song” and its film version.
Yes, you need opportunity, but you also need Oscar voters willing to recognize that talent. As I have posted before, take ”The Last Emperor,” ”Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” ”Slumdog Millionaire,” ”Life of Pi,” ”Letters From Iwo Jima,” etc. All were acclaimed as Best Picture nominees/winners and represent 42 Oscar nominations … but they got ZERO nominations for acting. John Lone, Ziyi Zhang, Michelle Yeoh, Dev Patel, etc., were either nominated for a Globe, BAFTA, SAG, etc., but somehow the Academy overlooked all their performances. How do you award those movies with citing ANY of them?
We definitely need more movies with more actors, directors, writers, etc., of color. But what happens if you have an intransigent Academy (94% white) whose tastes don’t seem to value merit AND diversity?
They look for talent and revenue. Stop whining.
In response to suggestions that the Academy will make themselves irrelevant or extinct by not thinking outside the box, I’d argue that as long as film critics exist there will be always be a box that the Academy will look to to draw its films from. They want to look smart, and a part of the quality-film conversation, and critics are the gatekeepers of this. Since film writing is still such a pervasive part of movie culture (more than ever, when you include all movie-related sites, bloggers, this site included) I don’t see it or the Academy’s choices going away anytime soon.
And should the day come when films with minority characters are taken seriously by critics as the best films of their year, the Academy will follow suit. Maybe we should be looking to critics to lead this fight, like Jason suggests above?
If one looks at 2014 there were no black people in serious contention for nominations. 2015 you have Jordan and Smith who at most were as high as 7th for Actor. Elba’s snub may have had more to do with the movie’s subject and release strategy than the color of Idris’s skin. While 20 and 20 back-to-back is superficially alarming those who follow the Oscars through the entire season know two years in a row is still something of a coincidence. Akin to saying it’s Global Warming if it’s hot two years in a row (although that might actually be the case). Blaming the Oscars is easy. Way too easy. The harsher reality is that the industry is still not set up to accommodate other than white male. The larger goal and the harder goal would be to set up the resources so that not only those films are made and released but that also there is a Weinstein eye on making sure those films are Academy ready and Academy friendly like The Big Short or Birdman. As with the state of the economy one has to have a sound infrastructure to be truly successful. All of the energy with Oscarsowhite should instead be concentrated on creating such an infrastructure. Until the complaining stops and the activity begins things instead will continue to be in this seemingly unbroken cycle of superficial disappointment and no establishing and maintaining a core from which that disappointment can be ameliorated. It’s time to work on the films not the awards. The former will lead to the latter.
But why weren’t they in contention or taken seriously as artists and films of high merit. “Tangerine”, “Creed”, “Chi-raq” and “Straight Outta Compton” all are better reviewed and besides “Tangerine”, better box office than “The Danish Girl”. But “TDG” never left the Oscar conversation. “Joy” failed critically and has middling box office numbers but here we are looking at yet another nomination for Jennifer Lawrence. “Creed” has a black director, writer, leading man, supporting cast and a female D.P. but the white guy is the only nomination it has. Something ain’t right.
If The Danish Girl or Joy were nominated for best picture over Creed or Tangerine then the issue would be more digestible. But Danish Girl’s acting has been more widely praised than any of the other films, save for Tangerine. Joy only scored best actress. The critics loved Lawrence’s work more than the actual movie itself. I don’t think Straight Outta Compton was ever really part of the conversation until it got a SAG nom and then people went nuts saying it deserves a best picture nomination when in reality there are probably 30 other more films that are better reviewed than that. I think Coogler would is thrilled knowing he, at such a young age, directed a film to an Oscar nomination, whether that nominee is black or white is irrelevant, and just got hired to direct Black Panther. His trajectory is only going higher.
The AFI, PGA and NBR all picked ”Compton” as one of top 10 films of the year. And Pete Hammond of Deadline.com claims he ran into many Oscar voters who enjoyed it.
And this is the 2nd time that the Academy has snubbed director-writer Ryan Coogler. He won about a dozen prizes for his directorial debut, ”Fruitvale Station,” landing him honors from the Indie Spirits, the National Board of Review, the Humanitas, the Gothams, the N.Y. Film Critics Circle, etc. Even with Weinstein backing him, Coogler and the star of ”Fruitvale Station,” Michael B. Jordan, were ignored by the Academy. Anyone detecting a trend?
With ”Creed,” Coogler cast a veteran white actor, so the Academy did notice HIM.
I had most of this typed out too. Just lost it on my phone. Didn’t wanna retype because what’s the point. If a white man doesn’t get it, then he still won’t just because I said so.
The Oscars are inherently conservative. After all, Hollywood is conservative and reactionary. it is so pervasive and routine that it is hard to see clearly. they have no interest in educating or startling audiences. Audiences are narcissists looking for a fantasy version of themselves, not insight into the lives of others. Thus product assures us of things that we already own.
Individually, those in Hollywood are generous, empathetic, caring, and inclusive.
But get a bunch of them together and they’ll play it as safe as they can.
Come on guys, it’s a waste of energy and time to be so mad about such trivial things… Sure, disappointing that some actors of colour didn’t get nominated but in the end, it’s the collective opinion of the judges that they preferred others.
Improvements could be made within the Academy and the industry itself but it’s nothing to get angry about. The more I get into film, the less I worry about such things. I used to be so obsessed with the Oscars and race but that was when I was younger and more passionate, not wise. I respect the Academy’s opinions and tastes just like I respect any other person’s critique and opinions on film. I might disagree with them but it’s nothing to get angry about. Perhaps The Academy, and maybe the American Film Industry itself, could have more minorities involved but that’s all down to people’s own perspectives and choices. The US is predominantly white so it’s only logical that most groups and institutions are predominantly white as well.
Perhaps people should work harder to campaign for minority and female directors, actors, and other professionals instead of complaining about a “racist” Academy or Hollywood. The opportunity is there for coloured and female professionals to be recognised more often. I think we should put our energy and focus there instead.
Who the hell are you and where have you been? All Sasha has ever done is campaign for marginalized people, you asshat.
Perhaps, Oscar voters ”should work harder” to SEE the works of minority and female directors that ARE produced. Perhaps, the Academy membership should be more varied than 94% white and 2% black. … Sorry that some find racial diversity ”a waste of energy and time.” Often, those are the folks who enjoy ”white privilege” and never need to worry about ”trivial” things, like race.
Race baiting is ugly. Should the academy form a committee to seek out and nominate based on color? Or talent? Kind of obvious, that one.
I completely disagree. With all respect all human being deserve, to be honest, I think some groups try to make much ado about nothing.
I don’t see lesbian groups crying because Carol was snubbed in picture and direction. They aren’t talkinh about homophobia ou lesbophobia. THAT’S THE DIFFERENCE!
Dude. Where were you when “Brokeback Mountain” lost? The difference is that the white lesbians WERE nominated. So was that screenplay. And the costumes. And the cinematography. This was just an idiotic statement. For some reason they just don’t fuck with Todd Haynes. Which is just that ONE man’s problem.
”I don’t see lesbian groups crying because ‘Carol’ was snubbed …”’
Then allow me to introduce you to AfterEllen.com, a popular lesbian website. Its lead article is ”Carol was snubbed by the Oscars for the very same reason it was written” by Trish Bendix. She points out ”that the reality that the Academy does not appreciate a film like ‘Carol’ is because it never has.” She points out how rarely the Oscars have ever acknowledged movies with lesbian characters or themes. What’s more, ”Carol” is actually a genuine love story between two women that is NOT tragic or doomed to fail.
http://www.afterellen.com/movies/469565-carol-snubbed-oscars-reason-written
Small demographic that would be interested might be the answer. It’s how the world turns.
Here are a list of Wikipedia articles which list the Oscar nominees / winners from various ethnic / racial / cultural backgrounds:
Asian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asian_Academy_Award_winners_and_nominees
Latino: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_American_Academy_Award_winners_and_nominees
Black: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_black_Academy_Award_winners_and_nominees
Bowie was brilliant. Thanks for posting this video, which I had not seen.
I understand that he had a negative reaction to his own work, the Young American album, as overly exploitive of black culture. I’m not sure I entirely understand his point, or have even stated it fairly, but it is clear he had given the treatment of black artists serious thought before that interview. His video of Lets Dance was all over MTV and Bowie put his influence to good use.
I’m black, and it’s just not black talent AMPAS ignores and pisses me off. Latinos are our largest minority group in the states, and AMPAS think they got them covered by nominating one Mexican director. Big whoop to that. Don’t get me started on the sad lack of Asian representation, and other visible non-whites. I truly think AMPAS just doesn’t give a damn. I almost wish Chris Rock would just say, ‘Fuck y’all, find another host’. But, he’ll use this extreme lack of diversity to embarrass the academy and the nominees.
Fass, I already know two actors you are going to name…but name 5 African Americans who should replace the nominees that were named this year? Better yet, name 5 minority actors that should replace someone nominated this year? The problem isn’t the Academy. It’s the industry.
The problem is both; one feeds the other in a continuous cycle of exclusion.
Except that the Academy is comprised of industry members…so they are the industry.
A subset of the industry, yes, but I imagine a good deal of the academy holds no real power. The stars could speak up more and occasionally do but I doubt many people give a shit what the makeup branch has to say. It’s a topic that should absolutely be addressed but it just seems odd to bring it up at this time every year for choosing to award 99% white people when 99% of their options were white people.
As I’ve stated earlier – yes, the Academy is a reflection of the industry, but it doesn’t mean that it has zero influence in nudging the needle. It can lead in so many different ways, from making bolder, more diverse choices, to expanding and diversifying its membership, etc. I’m tired of this “Who’s on first?” characterization of AMPAS and the film industry when it comes to addressing lack of diversity. At some point the buck needs to stop somewhere.
I’m sorry, maybe I underestimate just how much value the Oscars have. I would much rather see this much outrage constantly at the industry all the time rather than it fanning up for a week or two every year. If “Straight Outta Compton” was nominated for Best Picture or Michael B Jordan were nominated nothing would have changed. It would be cool, definitely, but I don’t see how that moves the needle like at all.
I’m not exactly sure if you’re a regular reader around here, but Sasha has been pretty consistent advocate for diversity year-round (outside of awards season), and she is pretty much one of the very few among all her peers who will even dedicate the time to write about diversity and inclusion issues in the film industry. This is far from “Outrage of the Week.”
I’m not talking about Sasha, I’m talking about in general. Sasha is always an advocate, yes.
As an Asian, I don’t care. The awards are subjective. Perhaps they should hire more black judges but how many african americans work in the film industry anyways? To be qualified to be a judge? How many Asians as well? It’s just nonsense from my POV
Of Course they vote for films that relates to them most. I don’t blame them for that. I find it funny that so many African, Asian, and Latino Americans get so upset about the lack of minority nominees. It’s the stupidest thing one could be mad about. I’d be okay with more minorities in hollywood but that’s not a big issue at all IMO.
Or maybe Asian actors should do what the black actors did years ago: create an awards ceremony (BET) where only your race is eligible and represented. Problem solved. Doesn’t mean you can’t still bitch about the academy. Win win.
I wish instead of complaining on the Internet, people used their imagination to write scripts and start producing films that speak to them. Tangerine was filmed on iPhone. Enough armchair quarterbacking. Be the change you believe in.
And look where that got Tangerine.
Alright. Continue bashing those keyboards. Im sure that will do more then actually trying to make a difference within the industry….
I agree. Absolute nonsense that people are so “offended” or mad about the lack of minorities who were nominated…
Ballon d’Or happened just a few days ago and nobody was upset that an asian or not enough blacks were nominated as the best players in the world because NO ASIANS were that good and only a few black players were that great. They were all white people with only Silva and Neymar (who’re black Brazilians). The awards for soccer are comprised of experts, players, coaches, ex-pros, and journalists/analysts. Basically people who work in the field. Same with the Oscars. Bunch of people who know their stuff who work in the American film industry. Why does it matter than not enough Asians, African Americans, or Latinos are nominated? It should be focused on merit, not agenda.
It’s not that big a deal. It’s still a very subjective ceremony.
Is there anything more corrupt than soccer?
haha no. FIFA is pretty much the embodiment of greed and corruption.
But again, no one is mad that there weren’t enough minorities in the “Best XI”. It wasn’t a good XI, many were disappointed (myself included) that there were 3 players (maybe 4) who really didn’t deserve a spot as the XI best. I dunno who follows soccer here but if you do, you’d know that 4 Real Madrid players shouldn’t have been selected as the best players in their positions (Modric, Ronaldo, Ramos, Marcelo). Many of us felt that there were better players who deserved the spot much more but it wasn’t about race. Other players should’ve been nominated (Boateng, Pogba, Chiellini, Alaba, Suarez). The performances and achievements of these players were better and it was pretty unfair that they didn’t get into the Best XI. But there was no mentioned the race of these players. The guys who won the best xi were mostly white. But we don’t talk about racism here because it’s wrong to talk about race when it comes to merit. The Ballon d’Or shouldn’t be given to black players just because they are black and good. They have to truly deserve it based on their individual performances and achievements.
Same goes to the oscars. The discussion should be about merit, not race. Maybe people should do a better job campaigning for minority nominations. If they fail to get nominated, it means that the judges just like other performances better. Not much you can or should change about that. Maybe have more minority judges who will bring attention to possible minority noms? That could work but to accuse The Academy of racism is unjust and unfair.
I think something like 98% of the blame should go to the Industry as a whole and about 2% should go to the Academy voters. The problem isn’t that “Straight Outta Compton,” “Creed” or “Beasts of No Nation” failed to be nominated. It’s that only three movies this year really were in the conversation. It’s a problem that has to be stopped at it’s source. If we get to the point that even 25% of great movies every year are made by people of color you wouldn’t see this happening as much.
I mean shit, even in our own simulated ballots were came incredibly close to nominating almost entirely white people, and I know that in general this isn’t a crowd who’s even thinking in those terms.
Stopping the trump presidency is really more important than anything else at this point. Academy just votes for what they love. They are not racist like Trump or its supporters.
We are not accusing them of being racist but of having only one taste. It’s our right as movie going public to complain when about not giving diverse choice films and not represented by Hollywood and the Oscars. You can’t be in your own little world and pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist.
Diversity? You mean what? African American films? African American actors? Just because some films were not recognized doesn’t mean Academy is racist. In my little world? I am asian. You have no idea how Asians are treated and under represented. You are the one who seems to live in your world.
The problem we are discussing is that the Oscars are so white. It isn’t about African Americans or any other communities. What number percentage wise are Asians in the US? The African American and Hispanics are much bigger communities and if they can’t break through what chance for Asians? That is within the US but on a global scale, Asian filmmaker will play a much bigger role because of the rapid expansion of the Asian market, especially China which is close to challenging the US as the world biggest box office. I was talking about Academy being in their own little world by burying their heads in the sand and sticking to their one taste and ignoring a rapidly changing world.
It is the studios, not the Academy. Hollywood is still an American market and territory. They celebrating American films. What you want may not be realistic. AMPAS has awarded Asian director(Ang Lee), A woman director(Bigelow), African Amercan actors. It is certainly changing for sure, but to say Academy is racist is not entirely true either. So are we supposed to start making Chinese language films? Hollywood films are still the only films in the world that can generate billions of dollars. So what do you want the Academy do? To start nominate Asian films? It is an American organization that select American films, what you are asking is unrealistic and quite pretentious.
Can I just make 2 points about the so called lack of ethnicity at the awards this year. I am not going to argue that one or two African American actors could have been nominated this year but has anyone made the observation yet that the top 3 grossing films of the year globally (Star Wars, Jurrasic World, and Age of Ultron) only received 5 Academy Award nominations and all of those came from Star Wars? Not only are all the races being snubbed this year, so are the films that every one went to see! The Academy does not have an agenda here. They are not going to nominate someone because they are of a certain color or creed or to get ratings on a Sunday night. They are voting on what they see as the best in their categories. Now if the out cry is that like 2008 when certain types of movies like Dark Knight and Wall-E were left off, then expand the ballots to 7 nominations for each acting category.
Secondly, most of the movies this year were historical in nature. Films that were based on true stories like Spotlight, The Big Short, Trumbo, Bridge of Spies, Steve Jobs, and, even to a certain extent, The Danish Girl and The Revenant, all were about people who were Caucasian. Those movies alone make up 55% of the nominations. Throw in time piece films like Brooklyn and Carol and there’s another 3 nominations down. As for the other 6 “roles” that were nominated, you may want to ask yourself if an African American could play the part and if so…why weren’t they given the chance? The part in the Martian could have been given to an African American actor. Why did the company pick Damon over someone else? What about Creed? Could you have replaced Stallone in his old part from the last 40 years with a black trainer who knew his father when they were growing up? Hollywood is simply not writing the parts for the actors nor are the African American actor being given a chance to play the ones they could. So don’t blame the academy for the lack of nominations…maybe the blame should be on something bigger….the overall industry!
Thank you, I am glad I am not alone.
I am a white American who likes movies like Sportlight and the Big Short (those were my two favorite films of the year) but those two movies simply weren’t based around an African American! You have to start writing roles for them or suffer through another academy award show with no one holding a statue! But where were the BIG SNUBS at this year in the African American community? I am willing to bet they are only going to give 2 names and both are male. So if we are going to expose the problem then extend it into African American female actors. Fix that…rest falls into place!
Minorities should also include Asians, latinos, gays. The letter is unfair. The exclusion of Creed in the best picture and acting category does not necessarily mean it is racism.
As an Asian person the letter is not “unfair”. As Asian people we need to understand that black people owe us nothing. Not to mention blaming black people for not being more “inclusive” of other people of colour not only puts the issue of white supremacy/systematic racial bias in the hands of black people but it also puts responsibility on black people to be the voice of racism against everyone. The letter is from a black man speaking on his disappointment. Respect that enough.
Also the exclusion of Creed does scream racism. The Academy has a long history of nominating white people in movies predominantly about people of colour. Movies like Do the Right Thing to Straight Outta Compton. Had Sylvester Stallone’s character been played by a black man would he have been nominated? I doubt it. The Academy is all about politics and frankly racism seeps a lot into that.
The Academy just votes for the films they think it is the best. It may or may not have anthing to do with politics. Ang Lee won over Spielberg twice. If Holywood was all about white racism, then Ang lee would not have won twice. Danzel Washington would not have won.
What the fuck are you even talking about.
That is exactly what I am fucking talking about. You see everything Academy does as POLITICS or racist. What’s wrong with you?
The moment films start campaigning to be nominated says it is politics.
But yeah, the industry is the problem, not the Academy. If only they will write, make more movies for people of color then it would all be better. But race is not the only problem, age and gender as well. They couldn’t even get Todd Haynes and Carol in Best Director and Best Picture even if the film is acclaimed by both critics and audience.
Studios are the problem, not the Academy. Also people like Ava Duvernay are also problems. Her direction in my opinion is not as impressive as other directors that year. Could that be because the director branch or DGA members simply just didn’t embrace her work in Selma and it is not necessarily have anything to do with race. After all, it got a Best Picture nod, but somehow, that was a consolation price and means nothing.
But his films, one about gay cowboys and other about Indian people, and three (?) about Chinese people got a middle finger. And they made the poor man announce these ultra white nominees this morning.
He got a middle finger? Crouching Tiger won Best Foreign Film. What’s wrong with having Ang Lee announcing the nomination? No matter what Academy does or awards, you will always look at it as a racist white gesture which is nonsense. Stop seeing everything with a racist mind already.
There are so many other factors than racism that affected films like Straight Outta Compton, Beasts of No Nation, and Creed.
You are deluding yourself if you think Compton was getting a best picture nomination. When was the Academy receptive of hip hop? 8 Mile missed and it too was critically and commercially successful AND was helmed by a former Oscar darling (Curtis Hanson of L.A. Confidential).
I truly believe Beasts missed because of its Netflix distribution. AMPAS is not so easily going to hand over awards to streaming services like the Emmy’s. If this film had been released by Fox Searchlight or Sony Classics we may have had a different story (but thank god for Netflix, who took on this project when no other studio would).
Creed is a curious example because its boxing theme is something AMPAS usually warms to. Personally I don’t think MGM/Warner Bros knew they had a gem on their hand and dropped the ball on campaigning and therefore other films like Revenant, Carol and Big Short got the spotlight in that crowded fall schedule. Not only should Coogler and Jordan have been in contention, but it should’ve been a slam dunk for editing and sound.
I am curious to know where this sudden outrage of, say, Will Smith or Sam Jackson not being nominated came from. I have heard very few passionate defenders of their work and yet now they are both indisputable snubs fueled by racism. What???
Everything Academy does is racist to you, you see the indusry in a black and white fashion
This Asian says: give me a fucking break. And don’t you dare say to me Ang Lee’s two wins automatically makes Hollywood an inclusive bastion that makes up for a patently exclusive way of business that continues to this day. Tokenism is tokenism.
Um, is that the same racially sensitive Roger Ebert who named MISSISSIPPI BURNING the best film of 1988?
Yes. The same man who named Dark City as the best film of the year it was released and Synecdoche, NY as the best film of that decade. He also said Malcolm X and Hoop Dreams as part of the top 10 of the 90s and Chop Shop and 25th Hour were part of the best 10 of the 2000s. What’s your point?
Yes, and he rebounded with DO THE
RIGHT THING the following year. But his embarrassing MISSISSIPPI BURNING
stumble, on which he was hardly alone among reviewers at that time–and AMPAS,
which found itself having to explain why it had given seven nominations to a
film that rewrites history and outrageously makes the FBI the heroes of Freedom Summer. Talk about Oscars So White. And the Academy, unlike Ebert, continued to stumble. 1989 is one of
its most embarrassing years, as the nominations snubbed DO THE RIGHT THING,
except for the Screenwriter’s branch and one nomination for a white supporting
actor. Does this sound familiar? Instead it showered nominations and Oscars on
the racially retrograde DRIVING MISS DAISY, and didn’t even manage to nominate
GLORY for Best Picture and Best Director. GLORY is a flawed but still important
Hollywood attempt to address African Americans in U.S. history. The recriminations
following that year’s nominations—and just imagine if the internet had existed!—led
to much scrambling, including the fact that GLORY surprisingly won three Oscars
out of the five nominations it did manage, and also the Supporting Actress
Oscar to Whoopi Goldberg the next year and the nomination of John Singleton
(BOYZ N THE HOOD) the year after that. But the problem with the Academy is that
it always thinks that quick fixes will settle the issue. As this site has often
pointed out, Academy members are acting now as if the Oscar two years ago to 12
YEARS A SLAVE means that they don’t have to acknowledge black people for the
rest of the decade—an “I gave at the office” mindset. The special Oscar to
Spike Lee this year is another gesture that way. Among the grievous mistakes
AMPAS has made in the past decade, including the move up to late February, has been taking the special Oscars off the broadcast, so that the general public doesn’t even know about Spike’s special Oscar and what he said when he received it.
But my point about Ebert is simply that we tend to deify certain figures after they’re
gone, and blur over many of the things they did in life. We forget that they
were flawed humans, as Ebert himself points out in his memoir, making mistakes
and, in his case, learning from them. But Ebert, like most whites, was no saint
when it came to race, especially before his marriage to Chaz. However, unlike
most of us, Ebert made his faux pas in public, and they’re part of the record.
Well said, Sasha!
Here’s the thing with Oscars, in my opinion: The Academy is an institution that dont define what’s good or bad cinema. They only try to take some examples of good cinema (mostly), and recognize it with some nominations and wins. I dont think racism exist
because Straight Outta Compton was not nominated for Best Pic, and i dont think
racism dont exist because 12 Years a Slave was nominated and won. Quite frankly, we’re some much in love with the Oscars that we want them to change to our ideals, but in fact… everytime we loose our faith in a restaurant, we move to another. And, what we really love (in this award business) is the “road” to the Oscars. And in the road to the Oscars there are so many places giving awards and recognition to all kind of movies. You even have an award show that give nominations specificly to people of a certain race (wich, by the way, that’s racist… but, since it’s a minority, that’s ok…). So, at least for me, i really like to follow the “road” to the Oscars, not just the Oscars. Johnny Depp was not nominated, man, that was a pitty for me, but hey, SAG nominated him, that’s fine. I imagine that you have to live in America to see things more properly, and my opinion is probably very basic, but… i kinda feel bad when i see a cover from a newspapper with the faces of last years nominees and the title saying “The Caucasian Oscars”, and giving the feeling that, those actors don’t deserve to be there, because they took the place of someone else of another race. If you ask me, racism in cinema exist in the same places it exist in all other jobs: when somebodie wants to work, but he can’t, just because of his color. Like Sasha said, America is trying to change, Oscars don’t. So let’s change of restaurant.
Please, don’t use the movies to validate your existence. There’s so much more to life than movies.
Ever notice that when an acclaimed, “Oscar worthy” film with a predominantly Asian cast is nominated for a bunch of awards, the Asian cast almost never is?
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: nothing.
Slumdog Millionaire: nothing.
The Last Emperor: nothing – and Joan Chen was incredible!
Ran: nothing.
After the industry started replacing the white actors with authentic Asians, the Academy turned its nose for the most part. Louise Rainer (The Good Earth), Gale Sondergaard (Anna and the King of Siam), Linda Hunt (The Year of Living Dangerously), Aline MacMahon (Dragon Seed), Hugh Griffith (Ben-Hur), all were nominated or WON for yellow/brown- face.
Non-white men are supposed to tell their won stories, so that is why they are not rewarded but white men who making the film are. SOC was nominated for screenplay and Creed BSA, but both those nomination were for white men. Only one story must be told or by one side, that’s the Hollywood way.
How are the actors “not making the film”? How does Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon not get any acting nominations based on your logic? How about Akira Kurosawa’s Ran? These movies were stocked with great performances.
Those two film are exceptions, since they are made almost complete by Asians. I was talking about the reason why Asian or minority actors and filmmakers were overlooked was because the they are supposed to tell their own story. Many of the films about Asian or minorities won because they were told by white men.
Life of Pi had zero acting noms even though Suraj Sharma should have been nominated everywhere.
Eh…that’s a tough one. All I cared about was if Day-Lewis, Phoenix and Hawkes were nominated that year. Hawkes missed, that was a tough pill to swallow. But Denis Lavant should have been in the conversation more. Denzel was in for Flight and he was very effective. So I would say the perfect slate of nominees that year would be Day-Lewis, Phoenix, Hawkes, Lavant and Washington. Sharma was great and I may bump Washington for him.
Yup, I’ve noticed … and already posted about it, much further down in this thread. It’s odd how the Oscar voters can shower these Asian-themed movies with nominations in every category … but acting. John Lone, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang, Dev Patel were up for Globes, SAG or BAFTA, but Oscar snubbed ’em all.
Add Life of Pi to that list (Suraj Sharma/Irrfan Khan).
HMM, VERY interesting point, especially the yellow / brown face part..
I agree with the below. That’s a very interesting point.
The Oscars are a global event. This whole race issue is not an issue outside the U.S. It’s really a specific political thing about american society that has nothing to do with cinema. Unless you’re asking for “black quotas” at the Oscars, let’s say a rule which forces the Academy to nominate every year a fixed percentage of “black movies”. Would you really like something like that? Once it happens, would you be fine with the fact that those movies were nominated just for being black? This is not inclusion but ghettoization. Let movies speak for themselves, let people choose what they like following their fair judgement and not a biased agenda.
Well, the problem is that the Academy choose one type of films and they rarely give a look to other types of film. People complain about the lack of diversity in their choice. Unfortunately, the also choose one type of filmmakers and that’s straight white men. This is not that difficult. Clearly, there’s a problem for the Academy but thus far they don’t know how to sort it out.
The Academy keeps choosing period dramas only and people are getting sick of it now. It’s time they make a change. Nobody is asking for a genre category, just that they pick the best films including great genre films.
The Academy: We’re white, we’re here, get used to.
So give me the best scenario where the Academy would not be criticized by you?
Speaking of mirrors, Chris Rock at the Oscars is going to be a mirror-negative of Roger Ebert at the Image Awards.
I read this kindly written text. But I replaced ‘black’ with ‘gay’. Not good either.
Let’s make a gay themed film with all black actors. It will work.
The Boyz in the Band are Always Hard
The harder they cum, the harder…
Word.
Which is more inclusive – those flamin’ liberals on the left coast or the Republican party? Discuss
Well at least we know where you stand.
It never fails to crack me up when some right-wing fucktard commentator starts railing about how Hollywood is a never-ending stream of left-wing propaganda. Maybe they’re trying to distract us.
As much as I respect the battle for representation for African-Americans in the movie industry, have we forgotten that there are also Asians and Hispanics that deserve accolades? Why is it that no one seems to care that they, especially Asians, have always been ignored???
The people who vote for the oscars are, roughly, the same people who vote for the sags, wga, globes e.t.c – the success of compton, creed at the other awards proves that the majority of voters simply did not think that compton, creed e.t.c. were as good as or better than other films when it came to the oscars where people can vote how they want. how is that so difficult to understand?
The Academy is 94% white, 76% male and the average age is 63. So as long as the other voting groups are just as institutionalized and mostly elderly and Caucasian, you’d argue that that makes it right.
No. its neither right or wrong, it just is. all the hand wringing and moaning about lack of diversity is just talk. It all boils down to the votes are not there. more and more diverse films are being made and are being noticed by awards and more importantly at the box office. but, as of yet, they’re just not as consistently popular among the huge membership of the academy as people would like.
Creed is a good film, SOC was entertaining but neither of them warrant a best pic nomination and the self-indulgent and delusional letter in the OP will not change that.
”The votes are not there”’ because the Academy members’ old-fashioned tastes are not as diverse as the films coming out. … And whether a film ”warrants” a best pic nod is subjective. The AFI, NBR and PGA all chose ”Compton” as one of the year’s top 10 movies.
Just what I needed. Another reason to miss David Bowie
Ah man a profoundly deep post. I think this year was more egregious in that you had two commercial black themed films that were not only artistic in nature but epic in the best of Hollywood traditional sense just get the shaft. There was no reason Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Coogler or F.Gary Gray or Jason Mitchell could not score nominations for their stellar work, none. This becoming a sick joke and I’m pretty much certain, although unfair to an extent, that the nominees will be asked about these glaring omissions and will have to throw down an opinion.
“Creed” in particular is a painful omission — for Coogler, MBJ, and I would argue BP.
No argument there.
Creed was a good movie. It was maybe in the top 20. Michael B Jordan did a good job in Creed, but I didn’t find his performance all that dynamic.
Chris Rock’s speech will be one of the highlight of Oscar day. I forgot which host it was in the past that said something to the effect of a black person in a sea of white people. I forgot who said that. :/
While I think the five versus ten ballot spots affects an insignificant number of Best Picture ballots, I do think having 10 over 5 on the purely preferential ballot would affect a greater affect. The issue is that by the time ballots go to a 6th through 10th spot, the current active candidate pool is relatively small. So there would need to be significant support for the candidate going in.
TV giving meaty roles to black women and transgenders or creating superpopular shows about women and homosexuals puts the film industry to shame.
They don’t have to look far. The talent is there. They just don’t want to make any effort.
Is it just possible that the films, actors, directors, writers etc. this year were arguably deserving? That the members of the Academy weren’t going out of their way to discriminate against blacks, hispanics, women, gays etc. Is Straight out of Compton a better film than the ones nominated or was Carol snubbed because it’s director is openly gay?
I don’t think they were going out of their way to discriminate blacks/hispanics. I do think however that they have an issue with empathizing and putting themselves in the shoes of black/latino/gay characters.
For better/worse this will be the defining issue regarding the oscars going forward. They’re now under immense pressure for next year and how they handle that will likely determine how people view the academy as whole.
Well, the Academy was heavily criticized last year over OscarsSoWhite, and a couple of weeks ago, the L.A. Times did a story about a possible all-white acting slate again. And while there were even Oscar-worthy contenders of color (among blacks and Latinos), it ultimately made no difference.
Deserving has nothing to do with it. They vote for what they like, and they like only what they watch, and they only seem to watch films about heterosexual white men. And when they do watch films with POC in them, they give the nominations to white people from those films. And when they do watch films about lesbians, they snub them from Best Picture.
Eddie Redmayne and Bryan Cranston was deserving of absolute shit this year. Rachel McAdams was in no way better than Tessa Thompson or Mya Taylor on pure talent. Let us not even get started on Elba and BDT. In a world where deserving= Oscar nominations so many whites would not have been nominated.
I cannot get the image of Julianne Moore’s Havana Segrand in “Maps to the Stars” whenever I hear about the “Oscar voter.”
What an amazing (and overlooked) performance you just mentioned.
That Bowie interview is amazingly relevant.
My one intended contribution to this is that I’m really fucking tired of people excusing the Academy for being merely a reflection of the film industry. Last I checked, AMPAS voters are by and large part of the industry and are in the position to affect change.
This vicious cycle of AMPAS and the film industry passing the buck to each other with regards to lack of diversity has gone on for way too long. Someone needs to fucking step up and lead.
That’s all good, but do they want to change? Id like it to be different, but the Oscars weren’t established to be socially progressive or reflective of reality- but to celebrate themselves – the Hollywood elite. Yes we must continue to rattle the cage, but no-one, least of all that group will respond to heavying.
PREACH
The Academy probably could change, but doesn’t want to upset its ”more senior” members. Scott Feinberg at the Hollywood Reporter recently proposed that if you’re a film professional who hasn’t had a screen credit within the past 10 years, you lose your Oscar voting privileges. If you work again, your membership can be reactivated. Currently, the Academy seems beholden to the tastes of those who haven’t worked in decades. It’s not a bad idea. The Baseball Hall of Fame just trimmed its voting ranks by one-sixth (109), dropping any sports journalists who hadn’t been active in the past decade.
Don’t forget Spike Lee, Lee Daniels and Steve McQueen on the list of prestigious black filmmakers!
Noting when I type that that my favorite film of the year was Tangerine
Which nominees would you pull for minority nominees?
I would say Smith, MBatha-Raw, Oscar Isaac, Del Toro, and Elba would’ve all been worthwhile nominees. Granted you’d have to get rid of Redmayne/Cranston, McAdams/Mara/Vikander (Cat Fraud), and Ruffalo to make some of that happen. I think the complaint is more that there was a wealth of African American/Latino choices and not a one made it in.
I also want to mention how good I thought Angela Basset was in Chi Raq and Jason Mitchell in Straight Outta Compton. Granted those would’ve been very left field choices.
This year’s Best Actor lineup is pretty undistinguished. Michael B Jordan would certainly have improved it
Everyone who voted for Cranston’s OTT performance ahead of Michael B. Jordan gets an F. Yes, he was brilliant as Walter White, but that doesn’t mean we automatically sign him up for every award from now on!
Christian Bale and Mark Ruffalo could have fucked off for Idris Elba and Oscar Isaac.
Any two out of Bryan Cranston, Matt Damon and Eddie Redmayne could have fucked off for Abraham Attah and Michael B. Jordan.
Rachel McAdams could have fucked off for Mya Taylor, and Jennifer Lawrence could have fucked off for Kitana Kiki Rodriguez.
The nominations reflect who the Academy is and what they like to see as representations of themselves and their organisation. Progress is glacial in its pace. The rich and privileged mirror their sensibilities in their choices but not always – the pockets of progression are there. I am heartened today by the unexpected nom for Charlotte Rampling. This site’s enduring support for this little film and powerful performance has paid off. Just when one wants to definitively peg AMPAS as only voting for fuckable young women. along comes a nomination for a veteran European actress in a film few people had seen before the voting period. For Room and Brooklyn to be included in Best Picture and especially the former in the Director category is great. Again the pessimists who consider the director’s branch snooty, expecting McCarthy and McKay to be overlooked have to look again. Ridley Scott’s omission is curious; likewise, the considerable love for George Miller and his 9 other nod for Mad max. I am never especially surprised by the lack of multicultural representation, but always applaud when writers like Sasha and Ryan continue to advocate for it. If nothing else, it gives this reader an opportunity to contemplate what stories and storytellers he leans towards and see if there is room for expansion. There always is……
My favorite screenplay last year, Dear White People and my favorite this year, Dope. Both about african americans, both ignored…
Viola Davis isn’t exactly hurting. She stars in a hit TV series and won an Emmy and SAG Award for it last year. An Oscar will find its way onto her mantle eventually.
She hasn’t had a single leading role in a movie that was worth anything since The Help in 2011.
…and why do you think she went to TV? Television is way ahead of the film industry when it comes to diversity.
It doesn’t even matter if black actors are nominated or even win at the Oscars, since how often does the recognition even help?
Has Barkhad Abdi’s film career taken off since getting a supporting nom two years ago? Gabourey Sidibe went to TV. Mo’Nique was apparently blacklisted after winning her Oscar and also moved to TV. And Lupita Nyong’o has scored two major blockbuster roles since winning her Oscar, both of which involve voicing a CGI creature and not being on screen at all.
Hollywood racism runs much, much, much deeper than Oscar nominations. This is an industry wide problem. The Academy only reflects the industry that we have. The Hollywood agents, the casting directors, the writers, the directors, the producers, the moneymen, the marketers, etc. Its a systemic problem that runs deep, thousands and thousands strong, re-enforced in different ways every single day.
All true. Washington is 1 of the most reliable actors still working. As the Sony hack showed, it’s harder to get a movie green light with him as a lead than 1 with constant flop white actors like Reynolds and Hemsworth.
Even an A-list actor like Denzel Washington is often wasted in poor action movies or sterotypical characters. It’s quite telling that he won Best Actor for that role in Training Day and not for Malcolm X or Flight.
Washington winning an Oscar means nothing?
He pretty much won for Training Day (most likely) because Russell Crowe punched a reporter after winning almost everything else. He was never going to win for Flight, not when Daniel Day-Lewis was wining everything for Lincoln. Probably would have won for Malcolm X if Al Pacino had won when he was supposed to (Godfather Part 2 and Dog Day Afternoon, sorry Jack Nicholson).
Brava to Sasha for always being a champion for diversity in movies. And it’s not just a black and white issue. But one for more Asian-Americans, more Native Americans, more Latinos (Sasha was one of the few writers to promote ”McFarland, USA”). … That said, the world of movie critics, film journalists and bloggers is largely white, older men, and it could use more women and writers of color to bring their unique perspectives, too.
I feel the same way. It’s strange to love movies but hate that you don’t see people who look like you often reflected in roles or behind the scenes.
The closing paragraph says it all. The Academy can either change or let the Oscars become irrelevant.
“I am not sure I will live long enough to see them really change.”
You just made me cry.
CREED is the best film of the year. Part of me thought that enough of the voters would be moved by it to vote for Coogler, Covington, Jordan, Thompson, and Maryse Alberti for her brilliant photography.
But no.
I was just reminded of Clooney’s bullshit acceptance speech that shows how dumb and delusional the Academy is: “And we, you know, we bring up subjects, we are the ones—this Academy, this group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I’m proud to be a part of this Academy, proud to be part of this community, and proud to be out of touch. And I thank you so much for this.”
I know this is about race and I fully support every word Sasha wrote, but I also got texts from LGBTQ friends throughout the day of why the Academy refuses to acknowledge them and that TV does so much better with both of these: racially diverse casts and LGBTQ stories.
The Academy has prided itself on being progressive but they’ve rested for decades and now they’re actually behind all other forms of entertainment when it comes to race and sexuality (to speak to the Hattie comment). WAKE UP! There’s a world outside the studio lot!
Proving even more that TV is better than film these days.
And when Hattie McDaniel was sitting at the back of the room…
here way go again with the race quotas crap that diminishes the work done by the nominees, i mean come on the movies that were better got nominated, why does everything needs to be about civil rights movement..
Bridge of Spies and TBS was in no way better than the 3 being mentioned.
‘the movies that were better got nominated’
sorry, I forgot about the bit where we all had to let the Academy inform our personal opinions about films. I thought The Revenant was a bit shit when I saw it, but now it’s got too many Oscar nominations, I realise it’s the greatest film of all time!
At least, at the very least, one film mostly by African-Americans, should have won Best Picture: “Do the Right Thing”. I’d dare to say, had a white man directed “Inside Man”, we would have been talking about a possible Oscar sweeper, or at least nominations-wise. Spike Lee is the best example of AMPAS racism, but it isn’t the only one.
“12 Years a Slave”, did win, yes. But the director is african-english. And while “Schindler’s List” won 7 Oscars, this similar film just won 3, making it a modest BP winner, rather than the Oscar magnet that attracts audience to important films.
Ang Lee has TWO Directing Oscars, yet he never won Best Film (he won for Foreign).
Slumdog Millionaire, a movie about India, directed by a scottish, wins 8 Oscars. No actor from the film is nominated.
We better not talk about latino films. “Frida” was possibly the closest a latino film – directed by an anglosaxon woman, let’s recall – had ever gone to win Best Picture. And no, “Birdman” or “The Revenant” aren’t latino films, even if Iñarritu is a latino (of european basque/spanish descent) and “Babel” had 1/4 of the story around latinos.
And even worse, how many times a non-english speaking director has won director, for a non-english speaking film? If I recall correctly, NONE. The list of nominees and snubbees goes like this: Almodovar, Kurosawa, Kieslowski, Haneke, Fellini, Truffautt, Bergman… are we embarrassed enough?
To be fair, the academy did nominate Almodovar for Director in 2002 and even gave him the win in Original Screenplay that same year.
Great. He’s white.
He’s also Spanish, which is a lot easier for people in Hollywood to deal with – he just gets lumped together with all other foreigners. A Hispanic-American is a different thing.
The Academy has an atrocious record of recognizing Asian actors, even among Best Picture nominees and winners: ”The Last Emperor,” ”Slumdog Millionaire,” ”Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” ”Letters From Iwo Jima” and ”Life of Pi.” They represent 42 Oscar nominations, but not a single one for its Asian actors.
Hollywood has a terrible record of white-washing Asian stories and Asian characters in film. And when we complain, it’s dismissed as clickbait.
I do not want to diminish your extremely valid point one bit, but Hang S Ngor won Supporting Actor.
I’m well aware of that. That was for ”The Killing Fields” (1984). That’s 30 years ago!
I was trying to make my case with slightly more recent examples. 😉
And you have a VERY strong case. Even with him, the situation is horrible.
Sadly, an Asian actor hasn’t won an Oscar since. And you have to go back to 1957 for the one and only Asian actress to win an Oscar: Miyoshi Umeki for ”Sayonara.”
I found this wikipedia article enlightening. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asian_Academy_Award_winners_and_nominees
It’s really sad that Watanabe has not won an Oscar. For me Kikuchi and Qi were actress standouts from last year.
I still can’t believe that Rinko Kikuchi lost supporting to Jennifer Hudson. I know that people love that performance, but I don’t think there’s any comparison in regards to acting talent.