#OscarsSoWhiteTheSequel
Straight Outta Compton
Universal Pictures
Creed
Warner Bros. Pictures
Last year, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated its first all-white set of acting nominees, there was a major backlash that embarrassed the Academy, and likely helped lead to the most diverse new class of members possibly ever. In November, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs even spent her speech at the annual Governors Awards challenging the industry to diversify its hiring practices, a sentiment echoed that year by honoree Spike Lee.
And now, we are right back where we started. All 20 acting nominees are, once again, white. And unlike last year, all eight Best Picture nominees feature predominantly white casts. Straight Outta Compton — which enjoyed a surge of industry support with a Best Ensemble nomination from SAG-AFTRA and a Best Picture nomination from the Producers Guild — earned just a single Oscar nomination, for Best Original Screenplay — which some have pointed out went to its white screenwriters. Creed, a widely acclaimed film with a black director and black star, earned a single nomination for the only major white actor in the film, Sylvester Stallone, in the Best Supporting Actor category. Will Smith did not earn a nomination for his strong work in Concussion, nor did Idris Elba for his searing performance in Beasts of No Nation.
It is yet another humiliating reminder of how little the film industry even bothers making Oscar-worthy movies about non-white people, let alone considering non-white actors and professionals when deciding what constitutes the best movies of the year. Creed's Michael B. Jordan was never considered as anything more than a long shot for Best Actor, while the conversation about the contenders for Best Actress remained starkly white from the very start. We could see this outcome coming, for weeks, if not months. It is, in a way, depressingly unsurprising, and it is something the movie business will need to keep confronting well after this year's winners have taken their Oscar statues home.
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