DIVERSE PICKS BREAK #OSCARSSOWHITE
End of ‘whiteout’ goes beyond 4 acting categories
This year, the Oscars are not so white. Before the sun rose in Hollywood on Tuesday morning, the Academy Awards ended two years of a “whiteout” among nominees in the four acting categories.
In 2015 and 2016, all 20 actors nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the lead and supporting acting categories were white, inspiring the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite and sparking intense conversation in the industry to refocus efforts on representation and inclusion.
But this year, those honored are far more diverse. Mahershala Ali ( Moonlight) and Dev Patel ( Lion) are nominees for best supporting actor, while three of the best-supporting-actress nominees are black: Viola Davis ( Fences), Naomie Harris ( Moonlight) and Octavia Spen- cer ( Hidden Figures).
Twitter noticed immediately: “Wow 3 Black women are nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category,” tweeted @BlackGirlNerds.
Never before have there been more than two African-American nominees competing against each other in the same category. It’s also the first time in history at least one black actor has been nominated in all four acting categories.
The lead categories are the least diverse in 2017 but aren’t all-white. Denzel Washington is vying for best actor for Fences, competing against Ryan Gosling ( La La Land), Andrew Garfield ( Hacksaw Ridge), Viggo Mortensen ( Captain Fantastic) and Casey Affleck ( Manchester by the Sea).
In the actress race, Ruth Negga was nomi-
nated for Loving in a category rounded out by Emma Stone ( La La Land), Natalie Portman ( Jackie), Meryl Streep ( Florence Foster Jenkins) and Isabelle Huppert ( Elle).
In response to outrage over the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, the academy took major steps to diversify its membership, inviting 683 new members — 46% of them women and 41% people of color — to join the voting group that determines the Oscars.
This year, perhaps the most progress can be charted in the best-picture race, with four of the nine films nominated representing diverse stories.
Hidden Figures, which has ruled the box office since opening in wide release earlier this month, earned a best-picture nomination, as did the August Wilson-adapted Fences, the Indian adoption drama Lion and
Moonlight, the coming-of-age film about a poor gay black child.
At the 2016 Academy Awards, all seven of the best-picture nominees represented white stories.
Still, much work remains to be done. A recent report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University showed the diversity gap is widening inside the industry for women behind the camera, and zero female directors were nominated in the category this year.
And the numbers get worse for other minority groups. Patel is the sole Asian acting nominee in 2017, and Latino actors received no nominations.
The lack of Latino nominees is “really problematic, considering they make up a huge chunk of the North American box office,” says Shawn Edwards, co-founder of the African-American Film Critics Association.
“They suffered from what blacks suffered from a couple of years ago, in that they were not in the positions of creating the product at a high level, so they can’t get the recognition.”