SAG, however, nominated black actor Idris Elba for his supporting role in “Beasts of No Nation”, which was also nominated for outstanding ensemble cast. Same thing happened to “Straight Outta Compton”.
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Every year, there’s talk of whether actors of color deserve nominations or not and whether they should even care about getting props from this white institution.
In addition to the lack of diversity in the acting nominations, Straight Outta Compton, a story about the founding of iconic rap group N.W.A., was largely overlooked.
Directors Scott (“The Martian”) and Spielberg (“Bridge of Spies”) saw their respective films nominated to the best picture race while neither received a mention in the directing category.
Michael B. Jordan, the titular character in Creed, wasn’t nominated. The only notable nomination at all for a non-white person was Mexicandirector Alejandro González Iñárritu’s nod for best director (an award he won a year ago for Birdman).
“One thing that has become apparent to us as we look at this stuff, it seems that the TV Academy has embraced what’s happening in the Trans movement with Transparent and Orange is the New Black”, Mark Duplass told Variety when it launched an Oscar campaign for Taylor and her co-star Kitana Kiki Rodriguez.
“I wish I could tell you (why African Americans were not nominated)”, Robertson said.
The overwhelmingly white nominations list comes as the Academy has added more minorities to its 6,000-plus members. “We have got to speed it up”.
This is a noticeable change of heart from last January, amid the #OscarsSoWhite backlash, when Isaacs denied that the Academy had a “diversity problem”; she also said the Academy had “made greater strides than we ever have in the past toward becoming a more diverse and inclusive organization”.
One year after the critically acclaimed “Selma” was largely snubbed by academy voters, sparking protests, actors and filmmakers of color are again being ignored – and Twitter is not happy. It got a best animated feature nom, but it could easily be a best picture nom.
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The Golden Globe Award acting nominations this year were also mostly white, with Elba and Will Smith, who was nominated for best actor in a drama for “Concussion”, the only black nominees. “There is no reason to believe that the people who keep the power structure going have any vested interest in seeing something different”.
