The 2015 Academy Award nominations are in, and they are overwhelmingly white and male. In fact, every single contender for Lead and Supporting acting categories is white. As The Hollywood Reporter points out, this is only the second time that's happened this century.
Meanwhile, the nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Cinematography have gone exclusively to white men.
That makes for the whitest Academy Awards since 1998—an especially striking fact given last year's wins for 12 Years a Slave, which had a primarily black cast and took home three awards, including Best Picture. By contrast, the Academy's treatment today of 's Selma has been widely taken as a snub: Although Ava DuVernay's heavily acclaimed civil rights drama garnered two nominations, including Best Picture, neither DuVernay nor the film's actors were nominated. (No African-American woman has ever been nominated for Best Director.)
Twitter users promptly noted the lack of diversity:
Looking at these noms, it's kind of hard to believe that Oscar voters are 94% white, 77% male, and have a median age of 62...not. #Oscars
— Rosianna Halse Rojas (@papertimelady) January 15, 2015#OscarNoms No female directors, screenwriters, or cinematographers. No actors of color. #diversity
— David Daniel @🏠 (@CNNLADavid) January 15, 2015
Surely this will be much discussed today: Every single #OscarNoms acting contender is white. Only the second time in 20 years.
— Janice Min (@janicebmin) January 15, 2015Quickly, the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite (inspired by Twitter joke #CokeSoWhite) took off in reaction:
#OscarsSoWhite they selling #AllNomineesMatter tees in the atrium
— big relly (@awkward_duck) January 15, 2015
#OscarsSoWhite they assume you're the kids' nanny
— Amanda Nelson (@ImAmandaNelson) January 15, 2015#OscarsSoWhite they don’t see the power of black leaders only thugs, victims, slaves or whores. Thanks Academy!
— Danielle Moodie (@DeeTwoCents) January 15, 2015
#OscarsSoWhite we'll see a lot of "Je Suis Charlie" buttons on the red carpet, but no #BlackLivesMatter
— April (@ReignOfApril) January 15, 2015
#OscarsSoWhite they don't see race. Or movies with black folks in it, apparently.
— big relly (@awkward_duck) January 15, 2015
#OscarsSoWhite they nominee pictures look like a jury from the south in 1962.
— Lena Waithe (@LenaWaithe) January 15, 2015
Here's the full list of nominations—chosen by an Academy of voters that is primarily white and male, yet exerts outsized influence on the movie industry each year.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Zach Schonfeld is a senior writer for Newsweek, where he covers culture for the print magazine. Previously, he was an ... Read more
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