Marc Morial: I’m skipping the Oscars

[LuckyTheDog]

For two years in a row, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences — the organization behind the Oscars — failed to nominate a single actor or actress of color in the lead and supporting acting categories. Not one.

Meanwhile, though women earned more Oscar nominations overall, they were completely shut out from the best cinematography and best director categories at Hollywood’s biggest and splashiest awards show again.

In a nation as diverse as ours, film awards that ignore the vast artistic talent and contributions of women and people of color are a whitewashed fiction. They might make for good sci-fi, but they’re a lousy mirror for our multicultural society.

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/im-skipping-the-oscars/

[TexasProgresive]

1. What would change things if

the actor nominees boycotted or better yet those who win refusing to touch the award and thanking all those African American actors and film makers who weren't recognized by the academy.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. It's a nice gesture but the actual issue is not that no women got a directing or cinematography

nomination but the fact that so few women got directing or cinematography positions in the first place. If hiring was more equitable and proportionate to the population there would have been about 150 films qualified for Oscar consideration directed by women. Instead there were I think 17. Anyone or any group that is less frequently hired also has less chance of getting quality material. If your entire pool of possibles is 17 films there is a very good chance none of them will be nominated. If your pool of possibles is 150 and women are making about half the pictures the odds become the same as they are for men, very shitty. As it is, the odds for women directors are beyond shitty and bumping up toward Lotto odds.

There 'should have been' 45-50 films directed by African Americans out of the 300 or so. Proportionally speaking. Dozens by Latinos and many by LGBT, or Asians....Asians and Native Americans get the last millimeter of the short end of the Hollywood stick. How many Native American acting nominations? 3 in all history. How many actors nominated? 2, Graham Greene got 2 nominations. How many acting wins? Zero. How many wins in other categories? One, Buffy St Marie for Best Song. That Native American info should be seen in the context of the fact that the industry made hundreds of films with Native American characters played by non Native actors and did so for decades on end. Last millimeter of the short end of the stick.

Rule One: To get nominated for a Best Director Oscar, first you have to get hired to direct a motion picture. And that right there is where the worm must turn.

[OneGrassRoot]

4. Excellent post n/t

[yeoman6987]

3. Id like them to just cancel the whole event

Have actors give the money they'd spend that night to a general fund to distribute to schools. That is the best outcome of this. They'd get millions and it's go to good causes.