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The Oscars is never without surprises, but this year was more suprising than most. After Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty declared La La Land winner of the Best Picture category, officials dashed onto the stage to inform the film's producers—midway through their acceptance speeches—that Moonlight had actually won.
After last year's awards, which attracted attention for the lack of black and ethnic minority actors nominations, people welcomed the success of Moonlight, a film about a young, gay black man growing up in Miami. That the best supporting actor and actress awards went to black actors—Mahershala Ali and Viola Davis—at least prevented the hashtag #oscarssowhite from trending as it did in 2016.
But, this doesn't mean the Oscars are suddenly diverse. Nominations of and wins for LGBTQ people are still few and far between. Asians, Hispanics and women are other groups similarly overlooked by the awards show.
Mirren Gidda and Josh Lowe spoke to Newsweek's Tufayel Ahmed and Empire's Helen O'Hara to discuss why the Oscars still fails to recognize certain groups, and how to fix the problem.
(Please note, this podcast contains an error. Helen O'Hara describes Kevin O'Connell as a sound editor. O'Connell is a sound mixer.)
Newsweek's Foreign Service is recorded and edited by Jordan Saville
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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