Spike Lee announced at the Governors Ball where he received the honorary award for his services to Hollywood.
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In response to this incident, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs states, “I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion“. When such a claim is made, internet champions are quick to insist that there are simply no deserving POC nominees this year, and that bringing up race is, in essence, discriminatory.
Whoopi Goldberg: Oscars diversity debate “p****** me off”. Black members comprise roughly 2 percent of voters, and Latino members comprise less than 2 percent. Frequently, actors of color are misrepresentations of their cultures, which only furthers racial stereotypes.
So what determines a great film or great performance? Film conveys emotion, spreads a vital message and portrays the ideas of generations. You can’t vote for an actor because he’s black. Because we live in an age of technological disruption where consumers who value diversity think nothing of turning away from ossified institutions in favor of media that honor and reflect their interests, Hollywood may finally be in a mood to reform itself to ensure its economic viability into the future. Last Thursday [the day of the Oscar nominations], we really just kicked that into high gear.
Actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith will boycott the ceremony alongside director Spike Lee. The session ended with a unanimous vote to endorse the new processes, but action on possible changes to Oscar balloting was deferred for later consideration.
He then spoke over his producer Effie Brown, who attempted to explain to her all-white team to be cautious about how they depict a black prostitute on the show to make sure it wasn’t racist. When Lee was nominated for best director in 2013, he said in an interview that the Academy had always been ignoring Asian actors. As has consistently been a problem in the industry and with the Oscars in particular, the field of nominees that recognize the faces in front of the camera is entirely white.
UCLA surveyed film and TV executives and found that 96 percent are white. With a lack of diversity within the voting pool, it comes as no surprise that there is an absence of minorities within Oscar nominees.
While the new voting rules are meant to have an influence on who gets nominated for Academy Awards, the second change targets expanding the diversity of the Academy itself. Obviously, the praise heaped on Mad Max: Fury Road is well-earned, as is the recognition of Room, a film that seemed to be right on the edge of getting nominated due to its tough subject matter, but whose strong performances and heartwrenching construction seems to have gotten through to the Academy.
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“One could talk about percentages of certain people who are Academy members and the demographics and so forth, but the real issue is movies being made”, the director opined. This exclusion is telling minority groups that they do not have a place on the silver screen. And as some black stars have said they will stay away from the February 28 ceremony, set to be hosted by comedian Chris Rock, their boycott raises the question of how those 20 white nominees should see their own nominations – and how they should respond if they win.
