The nominees for the Academy Awards this year have a lot in common like their undeniable performances they had in movies such as Room, The Revenant, The Danish Girl, and The Martian to name a few.
But the most noticeable thing they have in common is they are all white.
With one of the biggest movies, if not the biggest, in 2015 being “Straight Outta Compton,” you would assume the movie would get nominated for Best Picture right?
Wrong.
“Straight Outta Compton” is a critically acclaimed movie and deserved to be nominated for “Best Picture.”
The only Oscar nomination for “Straight Outta Compton” is for “Best Original Screenplay.”
Oddly enough that award goes to the screenwriters who happen to be white.
Sylvester Stallone, who played his iconic role as “Rocky Balboa” in the new spinoff “Creed” was nominated for “Best Supporting Actor” but the film’s leading actor and director, whom are both black, did not get any recognition.
In the LA Times article titled “Oscars 2016: Here’s why the nominees are so white — again” Rebecca Keegan and Steven Zeitchik asked Stephanie Allain.
Allain is an academy member who shared her thoughts on the nominations, “For the two black movies that made over $100 million at the box office, touched a nerve and are artistically fresh
She continued, “only white people were nominated. How does that work?” asked producer and academy member Stephanie Allain, referring to “Creed” and “Compton.”
The truth is, the Academy is made up of 94 percent white people, 77 percent men, two percent Black, two percent Hispanic members, and .5 percent Asian.
If these voters did not vote for the 2014 movie “Selma,” which is based on Martin Luther King Jr.’s campaign for equal voting rights that led to the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, or the 2015 movie “Concussion” which is changing the game of football right now, what makes the audience think they are going to vote for the godfathers of gangster rap rags to riches story?
The problem is the Oscars is only getting votes from one group of people, and once you are a member, you are a member for life.
The Academy needs to make a new group of voters who are way more diverse and is 50 percent male and 50 percent female.
If not, the Oscars will continue to be “so white.”
