The Oscar whiteout
Oscar has a problem, and he knows it. For the second year in a row, not a single person of colour is up for an Academy Award in any of the acting categories. Twitter is aflame with indignation under the self-explanatory hashtag #oscarssowhite.
This is an embarrassment for the Academy Awards and for the movie industry as a whole, especially after a year when such actors as Idris Elba, Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan impressed with powerful performances. The Academy, which ironically is now run for the first time by a black woman, acknowledges the problem and promises change.
That started on Friday, when the organization’s board of governors announced a series of reforms in advance of the televised Oscar ceremony on Feb. 28. It clearly wants to make sure there isn’t a third year of Oscar whiteout.
The Academy committed to doubling the number of women and minorities among its 6,300 members, who are now 90 per cent white and 70 per cent male with an average age in the sixties. And it will limit members’ lifetime membership privileges to bring in new blood. It could easily take further steps, such as expanding the number of nominees in key categories to increase the odds that minority actors and directors are recognized.
The bigger problem is that like many industries, the film business is dominated by the usual suspects — older white men. The heads of major studios are 100 per cent white; it’s been said it’s easier for a black person to become president of the United States than to run a movie studio. The suspicion is they don’t tend to take risks on actors, directors, writers and others who don’t look like them.
These things change, but it takes time. It wasn’t until the 1980s that black actors began to be nominated on a regular basis; it’s been especially tough for black women. The difference now is that patience is running out: minority actors, directors, writers and others aren’t willing to keep patiently knocking on the door in hopes it will eventually open. Nor should they.
For an industry so dependent on public support, the film business has been slow to change. It needs to catch up — or risk seeing its audience and talent drift away to other types of entertainment.