This past November, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced the A2020 initiative aimed at increasing diversity in Hollywood across age, gender, and race over the next five years.
Advertisement
If you think Ice Cube is upset about his co-produced film Straight Outta Compton only receiving one Academy Award nomination, surprisingly, you’d be wrong. The last and only other time Stallone was nominated for a Golden Globe was 40 years ago for the first “Rocky” film. “There you go, that’s all the “diversity” you get from us”.
British star David Harewood has said Academy Award nominees should attend “in blackface” to highlight the issue of diversity.
The absence of any non-whites in the four Oscar acting categories for the second year running has prompted more discussion on diversity in Hollywood. One notable snub included the record-breaking N.W.A flick Straight Outta Compton, which only landed one nomination for best original screenplay.
Among the actors and actresses, directors and writers who made the final cut as award nominations were announced on Thursday are at least three people with ties to the region: Sylvester Stallone, Adam McKay and Josh Singer. Lead “Creed” actor Michael B. Jordan was left out.
Not only was the N.W.A. biopic (in which he plays his real-life father Ice Cube) shut out of most categories, but all of the best actor nominees were white, sparking a fury on social media that pushed the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite to trending status.
Tony Hicks writes celebrity commentary for the Bay Area News Group. But they failed to gain nomination at Oscars. Awards Circuit editor Clayton Davis told MSNBC on Friday that studios often don’t promote awards contenders of color to prediction sites like his or Oscar voters, presuming bias will doom their chances for a nomination, and that can become a self-fulfilling prophesy. I thought I was going to be (behind the camera) but “Straight Outta Compton” was just a major opportunity that I had to seize. So assuming that makes all such people less likely to vote for non-white candidates – and that’s a bold assumption – how different would the lineup have looked if voted for by an Academy more open to candidates of any color?
Hudlin will produce the ceremony on February 28 in Los Angeles, with African-American comedian Chris Rock as host.
Advertisement
One could argue that these demographics may affect which films and performances get nominated.
