Just as issues of gender parity were reaching critical mass in Hollywood, the movies on offer featured encouragingly diverse and potent leading roles for women, a fact acknowledged in the nominations for best actress.
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But while Will Packer was admittedly furious about the lack of nominations for Straight Outta Compton, he made it clear that he has high hopes for drastically improving the Oscar ceremony and making it “feel as inclusionary as possible”. I think we’re kind of hitting fossil territory at this point, despite the Academy’s admirable efforts to diversify its membership – there is only so much you can do about the actors branch. In fact, the only nomination Straight Outta Compton got went to four white people: Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff, S. Leigh Savidge, and Alan Wenkus. “The people love the movie”, he said to loud applause.
“Being left out of Awards consideration is about more than just recognition for a job well done; winning an Oscar has long-lasting cultural and economic impacts”.
“It nearly seems like a sequel to a year ago”, commented Gil Robertson, president of the African American Film Critics Association. “It’s the Oscars, they do what they do”.
“…I really want to applaud are some other actors, directors and producers who were at the top of their game this year”.
“It’s actually worse than past year”. Earlier this month at the Golden Globes, Sylvester Stallone was criticized after his acceptance speech (for Best Supporting Actor in Creed) neglected to thank co-star Michael B. Jordan-or the film’s director Ryan Coogler.
Reviews of the week’s new movies, interviews with filmmakers, and discussion.
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Possible solutions might exist on the studio side, including: expanding how film-making decisions are made; creating influential committees focused on campaigning for Oscar-worthy nominees of color; pressing for more diversity throughout studio-system hires.
