After the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences released the 2016 Oscar nominations last week, outrage consumed Twitter with the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite for the second year in a row.
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Actor George Clooney told Variety magazine that The Academy is moving in the wrong direction: “Let’s look back at some of the nominees. I think around 2004, certainly there were black nominees — like Don Cheadle, Morgan Freeman. And all of a sudden, you feel like we’re moving in the wrong direction. There were nominations left off the table. There were four films this year: “Creed’ could have gotten nominations; “Concussion’ could have gotten Will Smith a nomination; Idris Elba could have been nominated for “Beasts of No Nation’; and “Straight Outta Compton’ could have been nominated. And certainly last year, with “Selma’ director Ava DuVernay — I think that it’s just ridiculous not to nominate her.”;
He continued to tell Variety that it is even worse for other ethnicities, “But honestly, there should be more opportunity than that. There should be 20 or 30 or 40 films of the quality that people would consider for the Oscars. By the way, we’re talking about African Americans. For Hispanics, it’s even worse. We need to get better at this. We used to be better at it.”;
Clooney even commented on Jennifer Lawrence and Patricia Arquette’s outspoken opinions on the wage gap between men and women. “We’re seeing some movement,”; he said. “Jennifer Lawrence and Patricia Arquette have made the loud pronouncement about wage disparity, have put a stamp on the idea that we got to pay attention. But we should have been paying attention long before this. 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.”;
And Clooney is not alone, many stars have given their opinions on the trending topic and some have even threatened to boycott the Oscars all together.