Oscar nominations spark discussions about diversity
White men dominate the award show nominations causing upset among movie goers and Hollywood
Winners from the 2019 Academy Awards accepting their award
At this year’s Oscars, many were angry at the lack of diversity in the nominations. Women and people of color weren’t nominated for many awards, leaving many people upset.
These controversies aren’t anything new, there have been many before.
In 2015, April Reign created #Oscarssowhite after all actors nominated for lead and supporting acting categories were white. The hashtag took off and was revived the following year when the situation was repeated.
This year, many were disappointed in the lack of people of color and women who were nominated for important categories.
At the Golden Globes, many were upset over how many white men filled most of the nominations, leaving out women and people of color.
The lists for Best Director consists of Quentin Tarantino, Todd Phillips, Bong Joon-ho, Martin Scorsese, and Sma Mendes. Best Cinematography has Robert Richardson, Rodrigo Prieto, Roger Deakins, Harin Blashke, and Lawrence Sher. Almost all of these awards are dominated by white men.
To some, the nominations of Cynthia Erivo for her work in “Harriet” and Boon Joon-ho in his work in “Parasite” barley seem to avoid a repeat of #Oscarssowhite.
Sophomore Rebecca Miller said, “When I look at the Oscar nominations, there were a lot of white men nominated for things, even though there are plenty of other movies made by people of color, women, and people of all sorts of sexualities. They’re all made and produced, some of them are not even indie movies, and yet the Joker still got nominated 11 times.”
There are only men nominated for the Best Director category, despite the success of many women in their field.
Only five women have ever been nominated for this category, and only one, Kathryn Bigelow, has ever won it.
“I know on the Academy, 17 people didn’t watch Parasyte just because it didn’t have subtitles. Sometimes you just gotta read the subtitles to be fully immersed in the experience, because that’s what the director would have wanted. It’s not far to judge a movie because it’s in a foreign language,” stated Miller.
“I feel, as a woman who would like to work in the industry, that I am put at a disadvantage and I have to work 100 times harder than my male peers just because of my gender.”
