The bad: The summer blockbuster ($161.2 million) and critical darling was shut out of every other category, including best picture, adding to outrage in another all-white year for the Academy.
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Biopic “Straight Outta Compton” only got a nod for best screenplay for its white writers, while well-received sequel “Creed” scored none.
Will Smith and Idris Elba, both thought to be strong contenders for their roles in Concussion and Beasts of No Nation, respectively, were snubbed.
Actor John Krasinski and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announce the Actor in a Leading Role nominees during the nominations announcements for the 88th Academy Awards in Beverly Hills, California January 14, 2016.
“We have had historic moments before”, she said.
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is the only non-white in the running for Best Director his film The Revenant.
In other, less glaring and political snubs, two-time victor Steven Spielberg was not nominated for best director, though his Cold War thriller, “Bridge of Spies”, was nominated for best picture and Mark Rylance got a nod for best supporting actor.
A Los Angeles Times study in 2012 shows that the Academy is 94 percent white and 77 percent male.
“We were from L.A. … but we realized after a tour or two that we didn’t need them”. Still, for fans of this resurrected franchise the five nominations the movie did receive, mostly in technical categories, felt like a consolation prize. “We have been actively bringing in more diversity into our membership. At the same time, generally POC and specifically African Americans tend to be jaded about the process”, she said.
In 2013, Beasts of the Southern Wild and Django Unchained were nominated for Best Picture while Denzel Washington and Quvenzhane Wallis were recognized in acting categories.
“The Academy has no power over Hollywood”.
“In the last few years there has been this chatter about the Oscars being less whitewashed because you have had some major and some historical representations of people of color”, Dunn told NBCBLK.
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Netflix’s chances of winning an Oscar this year will again ride on documentaries, after the streamer’s prestige-pic pickup “Beasts of No Nation” failed to earn any nominations.
