Global Breaking News - Thursday, May 9, 2024

And the Oscar Goes to … White People
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 2016 Oscar nominations this week; all of the nominees were white. What’s more, in two of the year’s biggest films about African-American characters — “Creed” and “Straight Outta Compton” — nominations for those movies went to white people. Once again, social media was filled with complaints: #OscarsSoWhite. How can the Academy increase diversity in nominations and awards?
* nomination = 지명, 추천, 임명/ nominee = 지명[추천]된 사람, 후보/ be filled with ~ = ~로 가득차다/ diversity = 다양성, 포괄성 

 아카데미는 어떻게 후보자 지명과 상(賞)에 다양성을 늘릴 수 있나요?

1. Hollywood Needs to Fix Itself
How many nonwhite and/or female studio execs are deciding which projects deserve to be greenlit?

2. Omissions Were Upsetting, but Not Inexplicable
The industry has a serious diversity problem. But none of the films or actors who missed out were thought to be slam-dunks.

3. Make More Women and Minorities Academy Members
Turnover of membership is too slow and we will have decades of #OscarsSoWhite campaigns to come.


Sample Essay

Oscar Omissions Were Upsetting, but Not Inexplicable

Nobody was more disappointed than I was when we learned that "Straight Outta Compton" had not been nominated for best picture, The "Hateful Eight"’s Samuel L. Jackson, "Creed"'s Michael B. Jordan and "Concussion"’s Will Smith had not been nominated for best actor and "Beasts of No Nation"'s Idris Elba had not been nominated for best supporting actor.

Many reacted by accusing the Academy of being racist since this is the second year in a row in which not one of the 20 acting nominees were people of color, hence the popular Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.

But the root of the problem has less to do with the Academy than with the film industry as a whole.

Very few people of color direct or star in major American movies because of decisions made by the studios for reasons of commerce and/or bigotry and/or cowardice. This leaves the Academy with a lack of diversity, in possible nominees and possible members (since one must have a considerable body of work to be considered).

Over the last few years, particularly during the administration of Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who is black, the Academy has leaned on studios to be more open-minded in their hiring practices, and has leaned on its own branches to make diversity a higher priority.

There is always more that the Academy can do. Gregory Peck, who served as its president from 1967 through 1970, pored over the membership rolls and redesignated as “associate members” people who had not worked for many years, most of whom were retired and not especially in-tune with the cutting-edge of cinematic or social ideas. They retained all of the privileges of membership (free screenings, etc.) except for the right to vote. It's time for another round of respectful house-cleaning.

But if this year's #OscarsSoWhite outrage was a bit more muted than last year's it is because none of this year's excluded films about people of color or people of color themselves were thought to be slam-dunks going into the nominations; they were competing in very competitive categories.

I included "Compton" on my personal year-end Top 10 list at No. 9. But the Academy nominated only eight films — they can pick anywhere between five and 10 — and few would argue that any of those that were nominated were less deserving than "Compton" was. If the Academy still guaranteed 10 nominees for best pic — as it did back when "Casablanca" won and briefly again just a few years ago, and as it still should — I have no doubt that "Compton" would have been nominated.

Jackson, Jordan, Smith and Elba gave incredible performances but again, none of the people who were nominated instead of them were indefensible selections. It's a tough pill to swallow, but it was just a terrific year for actors, lead and supporting. Additionally, even the distributor of Jordan's film didn't realize it was an awards contender until it was perhaps too late to mobilize a fully effective campaign. The distributor of Elba's film released it through a model never before tested with the Academy (in just a few theaters simultaneous to its debut on Netflix). And the Academy wasn’t crazy about anything to do with Jackson’s or Smith’s films, including the contributions of the white people who wrote and directed them.

I genuinely don't believe that racism was the driving reason for any of this year’s exclusions. And, if it's any consolation, Jordan, Smith, Elba and the folks from "Compton" are in pretty good company: also denied nominations that many expected them to get were Sir Ridley Scott, Helen Mirren, Johnny Depp, Quentin Tarantino, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Keaton, Aaron Sorkin and Kristen Stewart.