Los Angeles : Celebrities like George Clooney, Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo have joined in the debate against the lack of diversity at the Oscars nominations this year.
For the second consecutive year, no black actors were nominated in any of the four acting categories or for direction.
Clooney said films like “Creed”, “Concussion”, “Beasts of No Nation” and “Straight Outta Compton” should have got a nomination this year besides actors Will Smith and Idris Elba. “… I don’t think it’s a problem of who you’re picking as much as it is: How many options are available to minorities in film, particularly in quality films?,” he told Variety. “I think we have a lot of points we need to come to terms with…I think that African Americans have a real fair point that the industry isn’t representing them well enough. I think that’s absolutely true,” Clooney said.
Actor David Oyelowo, whose exclusion at the Oscars for playing Martin Luther King Jr in “Selma” besides director Ava DuVernay had created a controversy last year, too joined in the debate. At an event to honour Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Oyelowo slammed the the lack of inclusion.
“The Academy has a problem. It’s a problem that needs to be solved,” he said while revealing that Boone Isaacs had met him to discuss his omission from the nominations. “For 20 opportunities to celebrate actors of color, actresses of color, to be missed last year is one thing; for that to happen again this year is unforgivable.” Oyelowo said every actor grows up aspiring to be recognised by the Academy. “I would like to walk away and say it doesn’t matter, but it does, because that acknowledgment changes the trajectory of your life, your career, and the culture of the world we live in.”
Nyong’o, who won the best supporting actress Oscar for her role in “12 Years a Slave”, said she is standing with her peers in protesting the whitewashed nominations this year. “I’m disappointed by the lack of inclusion in this year’s Academy Awards nominations. It has me thinking about unconscious prejudice and what merits prestige in our culture. The Awards should not dictate the terms of art in our modern society, but rather be a diverse reflection of the best of what our art has to offer today,” she wrote on Instagram. “I stand with my peers who are calling for change in expanding the stories that are told and recognition of people who tell them.” Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee had called for a boycott of this year’s awards show. Smith, in a video posted on her Facebook page, said, “At the Oscars, people of colour are always welcomed to give out awards, even entertain, but we are rarely recognised for our artistic accomplishments.
