Many black stars who got nominations in Golden Globes were left out from the list.
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Looks like the movie industry’s “biggest fear” came true Thursday morning when Oscar nominations were announced and all 20 acting nods were given out to white actors and actreses.
Another one of the more shocking omissions comes from Concussion, which many critics praised as Will Smith’s best acting of his career, yet he and costar Gugu Mbatha-Raw failed to get any recognition for their work.
While the Academy offered up deserved nods to populist fare such as “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, there were notable absentees in the directing and best picture categories.
Many argue that Straight Outta Compton was the year’s best biopic, and in a time when our nation is rocked by mounting racial tensions and media attention on police brutality, it’s arguably the most relevant.
Despite missing out on a nomination for Best Picture, the Ice Cube-directed movie was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
Yesterday, British journalist Piers Morgan branded Hollywood “hideously racist” after Straight Outta Compton was overlooked in the Best Picture category. “It’s the Oscars, they do what they do”. While I found Die Hard to be overrated, he was the flawless villain in it. And while I may love him from Sense and Sensibility, Love Actually and Galaxy Quest, the younger generation surely knows him from the Harry Potter films.
As a result, the Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite was born. The Academy did, however, opt to nominate last year’s Oscar victor, Eddie Redmayne, for his portrayal of transgender pioneer Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl.
Straight Outta Compton was one of the highest-grossing films of 2015 and won applause for the performances of lead stars O’Shea Jackson, Corey Hawkins and Jason Mitchell. Ice Cube, who is now doing the press rounds for his newest film Ride Along 2 spoke about the situation during an appearance on the Wendy show with Wendy Williams.
The Best Actor race was thought to be one of the tightest races so it was inevitable that there were going to be a few snubs.
She said: “What’s unique about the Oscars is that the voting is done by film-makers”.
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According to Hollywood, the only black stories worth telling (and awarding) in recent years appear to be the ones about us getting whipped by “Massa” or fighting to sit at the front of the bus during the Jim Crow era.
