The 2016 Academy Awards nominations were announced nearly a week ago, but the controversy over the nominees – or non-nominees – is only increasing. In the 88th year of the Academy Awards, Leo received his fifth nomination, but minority actors and actresses were absent from recognition for the second year in a row.
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It’s telling that Clooney may have been the last straw, but when the man synonymous with the kind of tuxedo panache the Academy loves to drape itself in speaks out, they clearly have a real problem on their hands. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences(AMPAS), said on 18 January. Perhaps it took the rapper a bit of time to digest the situation, but at the time the rapper-producer-writer said that he wasn’t surprised. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. This “New Hollywood”, as it came to be known, kicked off with movies like Bonnie and Clyde and Easy Rider, and was made up of filmmakers with names like Coppola, Scorsese, DePalma, and Polanski.
Last year, the Oscars received backlash from viewers after they did the same and presented a nomination list void of people of colour, which led to the trending of the hashtag #OscarsSowhite.
He continues, “I think commercial success doesn’t have much to do with the Academy and who they consider, but I think just relevance, like impacting pop culture, and even just, you know the quality of the material and the way it was put together; and the significance that story had to an entire generation, kinda makes it a no-brainer to me”. “The young lions insist that the “deadwood” voters be cleaned out, “reads one 1970 story from The Pittsburgh Press”.
“I think we deserve Best Picture, especially by them leaving two [movies] out”. “Straight Outta Compton is a masterpiece, probably the best biopic since Amadeus – but many if not most of the Academy can’t fathom songs like ‘F*ck tha Police’ I know many members who wouldn’t even see the film because it represented a culture that they detest or, more accurately, the assume they detest”.
“This is still supposed to be about honoring the best performances”. The year after that, The Godfather.
The best picture nominees are now determined by a preferential balloting system. “I am an Academy member and it doesn’t reflect me, and it doesn’t reflect this nation”.
The New York Times reported yesterday that the Academy is considering a possible plan to expand the acting categories to 10 nominees, instead of five, while locking in the Best Picture nominees at 10. Now, it would seem, there’s some feeling that it doesn’t – at least as reflected by this year’s results. The academy would not release updated statistics; previous year, the organization extended invitations to 322 new members with a focus on diverse demographics.
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Boone Isaacs acknowledged in her statement that although the academy has made an effort to diversify its membership, “change is not coming as fast we would like”.
