(NNPA)—“Diversity is basically a description of independence. Diversity is what moves the ball for me, and I thought ‘give people a chance that have different points of view. Let the audience decide whether they like it or not. But give those voices a chance to be seen and heard.’”—Robert Redford, actor, director, and co-founder of Sundance Film Festival
Hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the 87th annual Academy Awards ceremony, better known as the Oscars, will either best be remembered for the uproar incited by this year’s homogenous nominations, or as a seminal moment for change in the Academy’s long, non-inclusive history.
For the first time since 1998, the stage has been set for our nation to celebrate its least diverse Oscars. In a year that saw Oscar-worthy turns from several actors of color, none were nominated in the acting categories, with all 20 acting nominations going to White actors. But the story doesn’t end there. Not a single woman stood among the five directors and 14 screenwriters nominated in those categories.
In a nation where nearly 51 percent of the population is female, how can formidable directors like Ava DuVernay for “Selma” and Angelina Jolie for “Unbroken” find themselves on the cutting room floor of the nomination selection? In a nation where, according to a 2014 Pew Research Center survey, “Some 43 percent of Millennial adults are non-White, the highest share of any generation,” how does the Academy’s nominees not reflect Hollywood’s audience base or the nation in which we live?
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