One snub I keep hearing about is Idris Elba, who starred in “Beasts of No Nation” and who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the SAG awards and the Golden Globes. I haven’t seen the movie (it’s Netflix original, so there’s that), but I know he got rave reviews. FiveThirtyEight called his lack of a nominations the “biggest Oscar Snub,” especially since bookmakers had given Elba 6-1 odds of winning the Oscar outright.
@Pizzagirl, I think there’s a big difference between suburban kids listening, and suburban parents buying movie tickets. And by normative, I mean – okay, watch TV. Notice the diversity in the advertisement over the course of an hour – is it 40% white? 60%? 80%? Why do we default to “white” so much of the time? Until we take diversity for granted the same way we do defaulting to white, there’s space to improve. I think representing diversity is important as a way of changing norms, because it makes it more common, and less scary for those who avoid/dislike change.
@scout – BONN was a double problem for a white academy – a great actor, but a movie about problems in Africa. Elba’s performance is stunning, certainly worthy of a nomination.If it were Daniel Day-Lewis doing Ireland, he would have…oh, wait.
I could explain better if I could wave my hands around 
The Big Short is probably not the best example given the way Wall Street looks, but the principle is correct. We also need to recognize great performers. Denzel Washington isn’t the only one. (Well and a tiny handful of others.) I may not like rap music that much, but my God, it’s important, not to watch the movie if you are one of the voters is crazy.
What is related I think is studies that show that a crowd scene in a movie is perceived as 50/50 M/F if it’s about 30% female. More than that and people think it looks wrong. I think similar things happen in the casting room when choosing how many minorities get to be in a film. In fact according to Huff Post, crowds are currently about 17% female. We need to change this.
A few observations-
The movie was based on a non-fiction book by Michael Lewis. The real people in the story were predominantly white males.
I thought Beasts of No Nation was excellent but the fact that it was a Netflix production probably hurt it in the voting.
It seems to me that there are a few black actors who seems to be able to be cast in just about any role-scientist, suburban father, hero cop, scoundrel cop, CIA operative, professor, etc. Those roles seem to go overwhelmingly to Will Smith, Denzel Washington or Morgan Freeman, and on occasion, Don Cheadle, James Earl Jones or Cuba Gooding Jr… They seem to be the Sidney Poitiers of our generation-acceptable to all in color blind roles. It would be nice to see a wider range of actors in these kind of parts.
I have to say that diversity in the industry matters but the Academy Awards don’t matter. It’s a TV show where rich people show off their gorgeous clothes. They are a group of over 6000 members with lifetime memberships with the same biased and skewed points of view as the rest of the public. They rarely choose what is best or most creative in film. What should we expect from a group predominantly made up of white men who tend to vote for their friends? Though my family has been involved in the industry for over 75 years I have watched the ceremony a handfull of times. I really could care less what they parade out every year.
Another snub I heard about is Will Smith’s Concussion. Apparently he did a great job in the movie. Him and his wife are boycotting the Oscars now.
Yeah, well, I think Paul Dano was also snubbed, but he’s a white guy. LOL.
^^ I don’t know how to feel about the Smith’s decision. I don’t blame them for making a statement, but it rather puts the eventual awardees in a terrible spot, and that’s not a very professional thing to do to colleagues who had little to nothing to do with your problem.
It’s so strange for me to read people denying the racism in the industry (well, across our society in general).
I remember learning in high school (I’m pretty sure during Black History Month) that when we read books, we automatically assume a character is white unless it is spelled out otherwise. I think that is true and likely why many people don’t see the lack of diversity around them. When there are people throwing tantrums because a Fantastic Four character is being portrayed by a black actor, or a Harry Potter character, then it’s obvious there is a problem.
Pointing out that there are token black actors who get acclaim or many successful black musicians in certain genres that are traditionally black doesn’t really mean that there aren’t diversity issues in movies/tv.
Will Smith may be boycotting the Oscars, but the actors in snubbed films almost always decline to go to the Oscars. Many of the big stars are selfish; why should they get all dressed up to promote someone else’s movies?
The problem is not the audience, the films or even the lack of diversity in film. These are problems. But the Academy’s members are the ones that vote and they are overwhelmingly white, male and old. That is the problem with the Oscars per se. The lack of diversity in movies is a separate but related issue.
While the total Academy membership may be 94% white, only actors nominate actors. (And it is the white faces of the actors that seems to be causing all the angst. Not the nominations for sound editing or special effect and so on). The leaders of the Academy that are upset by this are also shooting the very idea of the awards in the foot. If Academy voters are voting based on race rather than excellence, the very awards are demeaned. They are assuming that blacks will nominate blacks, whites are nominating whites rather than all actors nominating those who gave the best performance. So why give out any Awards if it is just demographics.
I think the awards sometimes nominate mediocre movies like Selma because it is politically correct and will make the Academy look inclusive.
As far as which movies get made, the only color that the industry cares about is green.
Exactly. There was also a minor uproar back when “The Hunger Games” came out, and Rue was portrayed by a black female. Outrage! Never mind the fact that she was also black in the book…
I’ve got mixed emotions on this. On one hand, as others have said, it’s an inherent industry problem; not necessarily a problem with the Academy. As for the audience, all most people want is an intriguing or enjoyable plot and story. Clearly there are many potential great stories out there that could become the basis of a film featuring non-white actors and actresses. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of junk that’s produced every year and the ethnicity of the leads is irrelevant.
On the other hand, it’s clear that non-white performers are given short shrift. For example, in the main I have refused to watch the remake of the Hawaii Five-O television series. It is absolutely unreal that that an Asian or Native Hawaiian are not lead characters in that show. I mean they’ve got this potentially great premise with the character Chin Ho Kelly, but he’s just an ‘also ran’ as far as the executives of the show seem to be concerned. Actor Daniel Dae Kim has labored and paid his dues with his prior work on ER and Lost, but the guy can’t get a lead role. Hmmm.
Finally, I am troubled by the messengers in this controversy; Jada Pinkett Smith and husband Will Smith. Will Smith does not come to this issue with clean hands. U.S. movie studios notoriously reject promising young Black actors and instead seek out rappers, i.e. entertainers like Smith, when they want to cast a black male in a movie. Obviously Smith is now an A-List star, but that is how Smith, 50 Cent, Mos Def and Common got their start in Hollywood. Young traditionally trained (and toiling) American Black actors do not get their calls returned by the studios or directors. Anthony Mackie and Don Cheadle are exceptions and Don Cheadle is not a young man. Hopefully the casting of Finn in ‘The Force Awakens’ will start a trend. Incidentally, has anyone else noticed how lately films with black leads are produced/financed from overseas? I think that Denzel Washington’s last couple of movies, including ‘Safe House,’ were produced by Germans or South Africans.
Hollywood executives should be forced to sit and watch Robert Townsend’s ‘Hollywood Shuffle,’ or Spike Lee’s ‘Bamboozled.’
Additionally, to some top stars in Hollywood, the awards are more or less irrelevant. Remember Dustin Hoffman’s acceptance speech for ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ wherein he essentially ridiculed the notion that a great performance by Duvall, or Streep or Pacino or Field or Fonda or Schneider was worse or should be rated lower than his own? Has Robert Redford even attended the Academy Awards show as a nominated director, let alone an acting nominee?
Television is a business and the purpose of tv programs, primarily, is to sell commercial air time. Shows are made to appeal to particular markets. The commercials are there because that’s where the advertiser chose to buy time, and they buy time after carefully considering in-depth ratings reports. How many people are watching? Are they within their target demographic (age, race, gender, income level)? They didn’t “default” to white; they specifically wrote and cast each spot to appeal to a certain type of consumer. The shows you’re watching with commercials featuring white actors most probably have a viewing audience that’s somewhat similar. That’s why the advertiser paid [~$300k[/url] for that 30 second spot. If the market isn’t there, the advertiser won’t waste the money on the spot.
The same goes for movies. The industry responds to the market. If the public attends action movies in droves, that’s what Hollywood will make. If we want more movies starring black actors, like “Selma” (David Oyelowo), “The Wedding Ringer” (Kevin Hart), and “Focus” (Will Smith), we have to show up in numbers big enough to have an impact at the box office. However, that doesn’t appear to be happening. The [url=http://www.the-numbers.com/market/2015/top-grossing-movies]top ten grossing movies of 2015](http://www.adweek.com/news/television/big-bang-theory-gets-highest-ad-rates-outside-nfl-153087) each grossed $200 million or more, while “Selma,” “The Wedding Ringer,” and “Focus” each grossed only ~$50 million.
I do believe the entertainment industry has issues. The lowest paid actor on [Forbes’ List](http://collider.com/highest-paid-actresses-and-actors-of-2015/) of the 10 highest paid actors and actresses still made more than all but 2 of the actresses. Until these highly paid [url=http://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2015/11/12/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-hollywood-pay-gap/#7f0237301fe5]actors[/url] can stir themselves to do something about the income disparity between men and women in the industry, I’m not going to expend too much energy worrying about whether or not they’re nominated for particular awards.
Re: #33 and Finn
Isn’t John Boyega, who plays Finn, from the UK?
Yes, but I believe it’s important to note that ‘The Force Awakens’ was produced by an American studio. So perhaps the Finn character is the start of a positive trend in “American” movies.
We’ll see how Marvel Studios/Disney handles it in future films. Of course the protagonist in the upcoming “The Black Panther” will look like a sub-Saharan African. And they might catch a break with upcoming Avengers and Captain America movies with the Falcon character. Incidentally at one time in the comics Captain America’s replacement was a Black man, a character which some white writers fought for. Kudos to Warner Studios for casting Will Smith as Deadshot in the upcoming ‘Suicide Squad’ movie. In the comics Deadshot is a white character. But even in the Suicide Squad we have another Black rapper with a lead role; Bronze Tiger played by Common.
I’m willing to bet none of those comic book movies will have actors nominated for any awards next year. The movies and actors nominated always seem to skew heavily British. Perhaps the Academy members are dazzled by the accents.