The Oscar nominations announced Tuesday went to a dramatically more diverse group of people than in the past couple of years, when all but one or two of the top nominees — in the acting, directing and writing categories — were white. Nonwhite actors garnered more than a third of the nominations in their field, including at least one in all four acting categories. Barry Jenkins was nominated for his work as director of the acclaimed film “Moonlight.” Three of the five films nominated for best feature documentary were helmed by black directors. Two black writers were nominated for best adapted screenplay.
The Oscar nominations announced Tuesday went to a dramatically more diverse group of people than in the past couple of years, when all but one or two of the top nominees — in the acting, directing and writing categories — were white. Nonwhite actors garnered more than a third of the nominations in their field, including at least one in all four acting categories. Barry Jenkins was nominated for his work as director of the acclaimed film “Moonlight.” Three of the five films nominated for best feature documentary were helmed by black directors. Two black writers were nominated for best adapted screenplay.
This blossoming of diversity follows a two-year uproar, symbolized by the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, about the lack of minorities and women in the venerable Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose members nominate and pick the recipients of the Academy Awards. Last summer, the group invited into its ranks more than 600 new voters, a good portion of them women and minorities. (Women still make up only 27 percent of the academy and minorities only 11 percent.) The new members might have helped broaden the nominations, but a more likely explanation is the controversy raised academy members’ consciousness on this issue.
But there also is no denying that 2016 saw a crop of extraordinarily good films that happened to take up stories of success, failure and coming of age intertwined with issues of race and background.
The fact so many African-American films got made by the industry is the most remarkable and hopeful sign of the Oscar nominations. This should be a trend, not an aberration.
The movie-going audience is about 40 percent nonwhite, and surveys show that minorities, like everyone, like to see themselves reflected onscreen. Still, the industry and the academy have far to go. Latinos and Asians and Native Americans continue to be woefully under-represented in Oscar nominations and movies in general. To truly reflect the world around it, the industry needs to widen its notion of what “people of color” means.
— Los Angeles Times