Thursday, January 15, 2015

The Oscar nominations are Out... And the lack of Diversity is showing


The Oscars noms are out and it's not cute. Here are some of the categories:

Best Picture
“American Sniper”
“Birdman”
“Boyhood”
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”
“The Imitation Game”
“Selma”
“The Theory of Everything”
“Whiplash”

Actor in a Leading Role
Steve Carell, “Foxcatcher”
Bradley Cooper, “American Sniper”
Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Imitation Game”
Michael Keaton, “Birdman”
Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything”


Actress in a Leading Role
Marion Cotillard, “Two Days One Night”
Felicity Jones, “The Theory of Everything”
Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”
Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl”
Reese Witherspoon, “Wild”

Actor in a Supporting Role
Robert Duvall, “The Judge”
Ethan Hawke, “Boyhood”
Edward Norton, “Birdman”
Mark Ruffalo, “Foxcatcher”
J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”

Actress in a Supporting Role
Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”
Laura Dern, “Wild”
Emma Stone, “Birdman”
Keira Knightley, “The Imitation Game”
Meryl Streep, “Into the Woods”

Directing
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, “Birdman”
Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”
Bennett Miller, “Foxcatcher”
Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Morten Tyldum, “The Imitation Game”

It seems to be a White male love fest for Directors and Best Actor nominations. I woke up to angry Twitter posts about how "fratty" the Oscars look this year and here's why.

No women were in the Best Director category this year, despite of the two most talked about films, “Selma” and "Unbroken" (both directed by women). Ava DuVernay would have been the first Black woman ever nominated in the Director category.

Also for Best Actor, there are no men of color nominated at all. That's not a huge surprise, but David Oyelowo's was super strong. I can't believe he was snubbed!

It's all very interesting, considering how Hollywood has been criticized for the lack of diversity lately. Oh well... you can see the rest of the nominations here.

3 comments:

Damien said...

I'm not surprised.

The more I learn about the behind the scenes world of H-wood, the more I am saddened by it.

It seems that the current generation of mainstream producers and studio heads should retire to Backass-Country-Fuck-Ville and let some new talent take over.

Bob said...

Pretty shocking, this whitewash.
Sad, really.

apitt said...

I shouldn't have been surprised.

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.