Hollywood is desperately afraid of another possible #OscarsSoWhite backlash this year.
You may remember last year when white actors earned all 20 of the Oscar nominations in both leading and supporting categories. This prompted the social media campaign, #OscarsSoWhite, which started trending on Twitter as a way to call out the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for being racist.
Well, voters will submit their nomination ballots this week, and many Oscar voters are concerned about being labeled as racist and prompting the #OscarsSoWhite for a second year in a row.
According to the Los Angeles Times, “the biggest issue for many voters isn’t about who might be nominated but about the diversity of this year’s acting class.” The nominees’ overwhelming lack of diversity “came to define the Academy Awards so much that host Neil Patrick Harris opened the ceremony by quipping: ‘Tonight we honor Hollywood’s best and whitest. Sorry, brightest.’”
It make sense that the Academy does not want to identified as yet another facet of institutionalized racism, and if this year’s list of nominees lacks non-white actors, it is reasonable to believe that people will pick up their phones and protest against The Oscars. In fact, USC history professor Steve Ross tells the Los Angeles Times, “If it’s all-white again, nobody’s going to be happy and there might be a growing perception that the academy is out of touch.” In addition, another Oscar voter said, “I don’t see how you can nominate another group that doesn’t include any actor of color and think you’ll be taken seriously.”
“If it’s all-white again, nobody’s going to be happy and there might be a growing perception that the academy is out of touch.”
But will we actually see greater diversity this year? The Los Angeles Times says that it’s not likely, even though there may be some changes in the next few days. “In the four acting categories, only Idris Elba (“Beasts of No Nation”) sits among the forecasted nominees at Gold Derby, a website compiling the predictions of two dozen Oscar pundits. That could change by the time nomination balloting closes Friday, with some close observers saying that the prospect of another #OscarsSoWhite controversy could even influence the voting.”
In the four acting categories, only Idris Elba (“Beasts of No Nation”) sits among the forecasted nominees”
Ava DuVernay, the director of the Georgia filmed “Selma” movie became the main voice behind the #OscarsSoWhite campaign after her movie only received two nominations. However, she asserts to the Los Angeles Times that, this is an issue of representation in Hollywood and goes far beyond a simple ceremony. “The OscarsSoWhite hashtag is what people want to hear about. But it’s a privileged point of view to think that everyone’s end goal is to be in that fancy room. This work needs to be done so people of color can seem themselves as real people on the screen. That’s an issue of survival, essential to our personhood and our humanity and our dignity. It has nothing to do with those hashtags.”
“This work needs to be done so people of color can seem themselves as real people on the screen.”
