Welcome to the Whitest Oscars in Ten Years

By Jo Piazza Posted Jan 26th 2011 12:20PM

Comparing this year's pool of Academy Award nominees to last year's, one major difference is evident: the obvious lack of minorities among the contenders. In fact, this year represents the whitest group of Oscar contenders in the major acting categories in 10 years, since the 73rd Oscars.

"These are some seriously white Oscars, I can't lie. I kind of imagined Mo'Nique wanting to go all 'Precious' upside Tom Sherak's head with an ashtray this morning by the time they got to the end of the Best Picture category," says Movieline Editor S.T. VanAirsdale.

One of the reasons minorities were not represented among this year's nominees, says Hollywood Reporter Film Editor Gregg Kilday, is that there simply weren't any African American-themed movies that had a legitimate chance to get a nomination.

"The problem with this year [was] there wasn't a real small, serious-themed movie about African American subjects that the Academy could turn to for nominations," Kilday says.

Kilday believes that at one point during the fall it looked like Tyler Perry's star-studded drama 'For Colored Girls,' with performances from Kimberly Elise, Anika Noni Rose and Macy Gray, could emerge as a contender.

"But it didn't get a great critical reception, and it didn't turn into a crossover hit," Kilday told PopEater. "Tyler Perry is a very successful pop entertainer who isn't yet taken as a serious director, and that movie fell by the wayside. It wasn't a legit contender."

VanAirsdale adds that Kerry Washington could have been a contender for one of the actress awards, but her two films, 'Night Catches Us' and 'Mother and Child,' were just too inconsistent to attract serious awards attention.

Denzel Washington, always an Academy favorite, was in two films this year, but both were the kind of genre movie that isn't typically nominated for an Oscar.

Part of the blame can also be attributed to the way the Oscar process is heavily influenced by publicists and marketers waging multimillion-dollar Oscar campaigns.

"I'm not exactly sure what the Academy can do. On the one hand, they're a historically lazy group of viewers who aren't going to discover or nominate anything independently," VanAirsdale says.

He explains that 'Precious' grew into the phenomenon it was because of its Sundance roots, and this year's big Sundance hit happened to be 'Winter's Bone.'

"These films are cultivated that way for months. Their ethnic representation from year to year is dictated by a handful of marketers and publicists, very, very few of whom are minorities."

Next year could be a different story. Jennifer Hudson is in the process of making a movie about Winnie Mandela that is already starting to generate Oscar buzz before it is officially in the can, and the Academy is sure to take note of the lack of diversity at this year's awards. Still, that lack of diversity could point to a deeper problem in Hollywood.

"Hollywood is happy to cast black actors like Don Cheadle in 'Iron Man 2,' Queen Latifah in 'The Dilemma,' but it doesnt make that many serious-themed films that take a serious look at African American themes," Kilday says. "It doesn't make that many serious movies of any different stripe or color."

Check Out the Full List of Oscar Nominations 2011

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Tags: Academy Awards, oscars

Comments

(135)

Wednesday 26 January

By Sherry

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Yeah, it's not just the Oscars - it's the movie industry overall. I don't get why in this day and age there aren't more minorities in leading roles and even supporting roles. It's ridiculous.

By Andy

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Never mind.

By Mr. Leo

Where are the real black actors and WHERE are the black-themed screenplays that aren't total crap???
Denzel is old now, who else you got????

Thursday 27 January

By Wanda

Its not the movie industry!!!! Nobody keeps black people or any other race from making movies. Its the quality of the acting that is nominated for oscars and awards... Tyler Perry makes movies all the time, nobody stops him, but should everyone in the movie be nominated if the acting is not the greatest just because they are black actors?

Monday 14 February

By Paul

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@Wanda

I agree if the actor is phenomenal and stands out (regardless of race), he or she should be awarded, but I don't understand why there is not enough diversity in Hollywood for lead roles for minorities considering there about 30-40% people of color living in the U.S. plus we also have a African American president.

By Curious

I don't get it. The article said there were not many films to choose from that had decent performances from African Americans. So what's the issue? Should there be nominations to someone just because of their color? Would someone really want to be nominated, or win, because of the color of their skin and not becuase they deserved it?

By imnotstupid

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the issue is, the only ones selected are white contenders. Hell, the movie industry won't even hire them to act - so how can they be contenders. The title of this article says a lot.

Friday 28 January

By Luca

Another thing missing from the article is the very important detail that the nominations aren't of all films released in the year. They are from the films released that apply for a nomination.

Yep that's right, a film has to request a nomination and which ones it wants to possibly get.

So just maybe the reason why none of the 'black films' released this year got a nom is because they didn't ask.

By melwinchell

Why is this author making this all about race? I am so sick of whites being picked on for merely succeeding.

Is it going to get to the point where we need a NAAWP?

By JustJakes

You do. It's called The Establishment.

By Tell It Like It Is

What exactly does "succeeding", or "success" with respect to this article/films, are U making reference 2? Perhaps problem lies within what, or more specifically, who determines what is, or is not "successful". Leveling field, more neutrality would remedy symptom article refers 2. 'Cause if not, JustJakes, like it or not people, remains (sadly) JustRight.

By thesavagehenry

If all the nominees were not white, would that be considered a problem?

By Doreen

By art

headline is.

By boris

It is all fault of black audience. If they at least supported some serious black movies, situation would be very different. Was not Hallie Berry in series move this year. Did anybody see it? I do not think so.

By Amber

Why the heck are they making such a big deal outta this??? I don't care if you're black, white, purple, pink, mexican, indian, or whatever...if you didn't have one heck of a roll in an awesome movie recently then you don't deserve a nomination. It's all about what kind of job the actors did...who cares about minorities??? it's as simple as that. They are crazy for even mentioning this!

By tjmyers24

Whyyyyyy does everything have to be about race. Why can we just say that these are the people that were nominated and let it go. Every time you bring the issue race into something, it cheapens it. Do you really think that the Oscars/Academy Awards/Grammys..etc are racist people that specifically did not include "minorities"? For the love of pete, people. This isn't the old days when there really was a lot of racism in Hollywood or wherever else in the world.

answering your question, yes they must be racists because out of all the excellent african american actors and actresses, the only ones nominated are white. furthermore, you people kill me with this race stuff. we are all the same race (human, I.E., animal race, human race).

By Lisa

So if for the next 20 years all the nominees are any race other than white, you wouldn't be upset? And every movie produced are cast with any race other than white, you wouldn't be upset? Before you answer just be totally honest with yourself.

On contrary. Racism merely covert -vs- overt "days of old". Article states "marketers and publicists, very, very few of whom are minorities". Cannot diversify in such fashion.

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