The 2016 Academy Awards nominations are being announced this morning, and some noteworthy noms have already begun trickling in.
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No people of color were nominated in acting categories for a second straight year.
It can be argued that of all the films served up in 2015 for consideration by the Academy, few focused on black stories. The last time that wasn’t the case was 2013, when Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) all received nods; Nyong’o would win Best Supporting Actress.
Whilst it is unlikely to triumph in anything other than the technical categories, it is still a refreshing change to see such a daring and unique spectacle-driven blockbuster like Mad Max enjoying awards recognition. Best Documentary and Best Original Screenplay. After last year’s #OscarsSoWhite furore, when no non-white actors were nominated for the Academy Awards, the organisation’s president Cheryl Boone Isaacs responded by saying that it was “committed to seeking out diversity of voice and opinion”. This year, the hashtag was popular again, with many journalists and observers calling out the Academy Awards for a lack of representation.
The N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton is up for Best Original Screenplay.
The academy also passed over Elba, whom critics had praised for his performance in Netflix’s “Beasts of No Nation”; Jackson, who had campaigned for Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight”; and Smith, who fronts the movie “Concussion”.
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Well, we know one thing Oscars host Chris Rock might cover in this year’s monologue…
