by Ursula Muñoz Schaefer/ Staff Writer
I still remember the uproar when the Ava DuVernay-directed masterpiece Selma received no acting or directing nods from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (also known as the Oscars), in 2015.
Though the blistering Twitter movement #OscarsSoWhite took off then, it was what happened the following year that caused the Academy to hire Chris Rock as host and launch a campaign to double its minority membership by 2020.
A crowd-pleasing biopic about the iconic N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton was thought to be a heavyweight contender for awards season, but was snubbed for every Oscar but Best Original Screenplay, for which all of the nominees were white.
It was then that #OscarsSoWhite took full form, pointing in particular to the lack of black nominees in the acting categories, for which it had been rumored that Will Smith (Concussion), and Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation) would land some sort of recognition.
Rock’s ferociousness as host that year angered some and delighted others (“I’m here at the Academy Awards, otherwise known as the White People’s Choice Awards.”).
And the buzz around the controversy surrounding the supposed near-monolith that was the Academy voters became so strong that that the President of the AMPAS appeared onstage to announce that they would take action immediately.
Which was necessary at the time. As of 2016, 91% of the Academy was white and 76% was male.
In other news, it didn’t come as a surprise that something like Straight Outta Compton wasn’t nominated as Best Picture when you looked at who was voting.
But part of me still thinks there was a much larger factor to the equation of the lack of black nominees.
The truth of the matter is that the #OscarsSoWhite movement should never really have been about the Oscars in the first place.
Whether Smith, Elba, or anyone else was snubbed that year is really only a matter of opinion.
What to me was really telling about the ugly trend in 2015 and 2016 was the fact that, besides there being no black nominees that year, there were so few examples of people who the Academy could have nominated.
Those previously mentioned were it, basically. Suffice to say, this wasn’t so much an Oscar problem, but a Hollywood problem in general.
That definitely isn’t the case this year.
In what continues to be a great streak for black cinema since the 2016 fiasco, the Academy has finally diversified itself, nominating films with major cultural and social impact and giving nods to some audience favorites.
Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse is predicted to take home Best Animated Feature, while Black Panther, Marvel’s highest rated and most daring hit yet, is up for a whopping seven awards as the first superhero movie ever nominated as Best Picture.
Oh, and Spike Lee was finally nominated as Best Director for the masterful BlacKkKlansman. It’s only been 29 years since Do the Right Thing, but good move, Oscars.
In total, 18 African American men and women were nominated for any of the 25 categories (including the Honorary Award, which will be given to actress Cicely Tyson).
Five of the eight Best Picture nominees are led by people of color and three of those are African American-led.
And while the nominees this year are being lauded for being the most diverse in years (let’s not forget about Roma either), this isn’t an entirely new trend.
Notice how many studios straightened up and released incredible films deserving of acclaim in the years following #OscarsSoWhite.
I’m talking Denzel Washington’s Fences starring himself and Viola Davis giving some of the best performances I’d ever seen.
I’m talking epic period pieces like Loving, Hidden Figures and Mudbound, and social satire in the form of a tiny movie called Get Out.
I’m talking Moonlight, the intimate drama shot here in our beautiful city of Miami taking home Best Picture in 2017 for its tender portrayal of a young black man struggling with his sexuality in a culture that forces him into a box.
This is more than just the Oscars. Hollywood is finally beginning to listen.
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Photo by John Briody on Flickr.
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