Current situation of Oscar 2016 doesn't seems to be very good.

Film academy announces reforms in response to #OscarsSoWhite debate. And Will Smith joins wife in not attending the Oscars.

Man, I also don't get it, we're already on 21st Century. People should put their shit together and get over with racism.

Plus, Academy president speaks out about Oscars' 'lack of inclusion'.

Simply throw out all of your thoughts and points on this topic here.

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Huh, I had no idea about this. Well, I don't really care about the Oscars so I guess that's why. Anyways, if I understood the situation correctly, the thing that's causing this stir is that there weren't much (or any?) nominations of black actors/actresses this year.

My question is... Are the movies/actors nominated actually worse than the ones not nominated? I mean, okay, maybe good black actors who deserved the nomination didn't get it, but the ones that got it... Are they worse than them? Let's remember that you can't have infinite nominations and that good stuff is gonna have to be left out. Always. At anything.

I have no idea about the current state of affairs in the movie industry, so I can't say I have an opinion about this. That's why I'm asking. If the answer is "yes, the Academy favoured actors that did a bad/mediocre job, but were white, instead of black actors that did an amazing/good job" then yeah, that's stupidly racist and should stop. But if the nominated actors did a great job, or even a better one than the black actors... Then well, since when is talent and effort related to the color of your skin? Is there a "black actor quota" or something you need to fill in order not to be racist?

I'm only asking this because I'm kinda tired of people accusing everyone from racism just because you don't meet a certain quota of this insanely revered "diversity". When you exaggerate this diversity thing, it turns out to be just another kind of racism... At least in my opinion.

Okay, all of this might be a useless rant of mine if good actors where actually left out and worse ones were favoured just because of the color of their skin. If that's what actually happened, then it should absolutely stop and if actors want to boycot the Oscars or anything because of it, then I think that's fine.

To exclude people based on race is racist, but to insist a certain group of people need to be listed is a type of racism too.

But I can't comment much on this matter, as I am not too familiar with movie industry and had no idea if the nomination is fair not not.

Why are you so fixated on the black and white of the issue (literally)? It's not just the fact that no black actors were chosen; looking at the actor and actress lineup, there are no Asians, Hispanics, Indigenous, mixed race, etc... In the film industry, where diverse casts have been shown to deliver higher ratings, of course the lack of diversity in one of its biggest award programs would stir up some controversy.

I apologize if I'm wrong, but this whole rant made me annoyed because it seems like you're blaming the controversy black people, when people of all ethnic backgrounds have called out the Oscars. :/ In the end, there's no clear-cut objective way to decide who delivered the best performance, so people have a right to be suspicious over the homogeneity of Oscar nominees over the last two years.

I apologize, since I'm not very well informed about this matter, I just thought it was about black people. The argument still stands if we consider all the other ethnicities, though.

Even so, I didn't know if there were actually higher ratings for people that weren't all white or "not diverse" (I can't express myself very well, I'm sincerely sorry for it). You just confirmed it, so I agree the whole thing is suspicious. I was just trying to say that, generally speaking, one shouldn't aim for diversity just for the sake of diversity. But this doesn't seem to be the case, so I'll just shut my mouth for now and I apologize for my uninformed opinion.

Oh, by the way, I was by no means trying to blame the controversy on black people. I actually wasn't blaming anyone in particular, I was more like complaining about how people in general tend to handle this things. Again, I apologize for the misunderstanding.

Last edited by Furan at 8:41 pm, Jan 22 2016

Wasn't this issue already a thing way before the Smiths commented about it?
Oscars just shuns it... to a degree I agree about the Smith, but because it's the lack of options where in a lot of good films are released, but only those with the average to over hyped gets noticed. More like, the lack of diversity on films rather than race. (kinda the same though)

I thought the Oscars was all about the skills?
Ugh no matter how ridiculous the Oscar have become, I still follow it.

And yes, the nominees are just, cringe. Come on, Jennifer Lawrence again? Have you guys seen Joy, I can't take her seriously, it's so cringe worthy, so blank, like someone reading a script with auto emotions!

And Leo! My god, if he wins it's going to be a pity award. Why not back then when he did a lot better, now all I see is Leo being Leo in every movie he's in.

No hard feelings! I'm glad it was all a misunderstanding. Some of the more high-profile people in defense of the program's nominations were attacking black actors specifically, which is... curious, to say the least, because the issue is more "for the second year in a row, all of the nominees are white/ of European descent" rather than the fact that none were black.

In regards to the articles provided, the fact that one of the Academy's sitting members is quoted saying "There is no racism except for those who create an issue. That is the worst kind." speaks volumes of the sort of individuals making such decisions. Yikes. I think I remember Jon Stewart slaying this "He who smelt it, dealt it racism" brand of logic before...

I already commented a bit on the front runners as The Passion of the DiCaprio and i know that “Oscar Bait” is real. Or that the AMPAS tries to appear way too artsy for their own sake (they also aren´t) and i never watch the ceremonies but the awards themselves are a (mostly) respectable inside the industry institution. Their prestige tends to matter so i genially care and watched/continue to watch the majority of the winners throughout the ages and i have seen 98% of the nominees in the big categories from the past few decades. What i also know is how these work:

You need to be invited to the academy to vote and they are divided into internal wings as writers or actors. Winners and nominees usually enter the inner circle but even Kevin Smith, who also lamented our very topic, is part of the gang. The Oscar Screeners (the studios send these out to campaign) tend to appear on the web around Christmas and are what voters get to watch and they can view all (impossible) or none to go on voting for their favorite horses. Some of the wings even “democratically decide” who is most deserving this year if they want to acknowledge someone after years of snubbing which is problematic as hell. The main problem though is that ¾ of the academy are old white men and another one is that members can´t age out after retiring from working or after having along a long gap since the last time they worked in films.
Another joke is that the voting members just have their maids watch the screeners and then vote for them which has a grain of truth to it.

This can lead to incredible tunnel vision and is a reason why Father and Son sap stories as Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close occasionally show up. Or why some winners smell of male prestige, white guilt or just tell the Hollywood comeback story as the admittedly great Birdman from last year. “Rebel” / genre films will also have a hard time to get recognition so don´t expect a “high concept” Nolan film to win and the days where something as boundary pushing as Midnight Cowboy or The Deer Hunter are long gone... and arguably never existed.

What the academy managed to do this year though is THE definition of a racism hyper combo as the same thing happened last year too and they promised to do better yet then went whiter and brighter like never before in recent memory. Everyone who is up in arms about it has a point and we are talking about a lot of actual academy members (!) too and not an ill-informed twitter witch hunt. All my inside the industry podcasts as Keepin' It Reel Ep.312 went over the topic in detail and the academy once again promised changed which is now a certainty tanks to the well-deserved shit storm. A lot of the nominees are safe choices and i can see the reasoning for most but you can´t tell me that a bunch of white breads were the most deserving of recognition amount a wide pool of talent inside an immigrant county for 2 years in a row. We obviously don´t need a quota and this isn´t just a debate about black vs. white as i pointed out in the previous sentence and Hollywood has a lot of well documented problems in regard to equality in general but such films and actors need to get an equal chance to even enter the race. I am also utterly unwilling to even acknowledge a half cooked defense and social equality need to always get the attention the topic deserves if there is a case to be made as here.
It´s the 21st century after all! Get with the program or learn how to goose step...
Die Fahne hoch! Die Reihen fest geschlossen! Die Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences marschiert mit ruhig festem Schritt [from The Horst Wessel Lied]

Forgot: List of black Academy Award winners and nominees Quite short eh? Look at the other Ethnicities in the box below to compare. So many Germans and list for Walt Disney is comparably long with way more winners too. Lol.

Last edited by residentgrigo at 6:38 am, Jan 23 2016

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Racism is a no-no in all its forms and in all situations.

However, wtf? There was no black nominee because...suprise...suprise...no black made a good performance this year? And don't give me the Will Smith shit, he was starring as "Will Smith-in-just-a-different-role" again.

God...people are TOO sensitive in this day and age. Has to make a drama out of anything.

And don't misunderstand me, like I said, I am against racism. But I am also against people using the racist card however they please.

And the Oscar answered by basically going down my list of grievances above.
This still doesn´t change that it is incredibly hard to land a proper/lasting job within the industry without being a straight white male which is murdering creativity and thus art on a high budget. I still see the upcoming reforms or some of the other industry reactions after well deserved public beatings as the lack of Rey toys for Star Wars as a great sign of change and someone as important as the academy needs to be at the forefront of the continuous fight for equality.
Such high profile ceremonies need to set an example. To be a shining beacon for film which is an important export of the US and not for bigotry and segregation.


http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/01/22/academy-overhauls-me mbership-voting-rules-in-response-to-oscars-backlash-over-lack-o f-diversity

Conversation over i guess.

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I agree that the Oscars need to set an example for not only other awards, but also the whole film industry. I also agree with the fact that not only black people, but also hispanic, asians and so on, do not get diverse film roles. Asians are pretty much always in some samurai/ninja/karate movie and black people either comedy/b-film/side character.

Nevertheless, It's still not OK to cry out racism every opportunity you get. It's like the boy who cried wolf, scream Wolf, or in this case, racism, too many times...and the people will just stop caring.

This issue needs to be dealt with from -within-. By other words, the committee for the Oscars need to be more diverse. Starting to do that by 2020 is not soon enough. And that's the point I was trying to reach.

And it was dealt from with. You do know that the entire thing was as much an internal shit storm as with the rest of the public. The discussion further justifiable exploded because they repeated last years mistakes all over again with NO lessons being learned.
Even Will Smith (one of the few "Stars" who can still fill seats in the age of the franchise) himself is an AMPAS member and having a majority of high society white retirees running the Oscar like a 1920s gentlemen club was choking the entire thing out of any form of relevance. The entire debate was one of the best things that happened to the US film industry in decades and this is coming from Grigori the film buff and not form Grigori the mixed race immigrant. 'Nuff Said but here are some further facts:

Oscar Voters: 94% White, 76% Men, and an Average of 63 Years Old
Again, from last year. Have fun arguing with math .

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I find it so ironic that they went "hyper white" said this year. Just last year in the fall (about three months ago) during the Governor's Awards (life time achievement oscars) AMPAS president announced some committee being created to look into the issue of diversity within the film industry; not just actors but positions of power within the industry. They're supposed to have some five year plan to increase diversity. Spike Lee that evening was also awarded for lifetime achievement and during his speech he noted that it's easier to get a black president than a black studio head. The issue isn't so much the actors themselves but, as others have said, it is the industry as a whole and the representation within the industry. It's really what this whole this boycott is trying to bring attention to.

Regarding the boycott on the Oscars, it's not just black actors like the Smiths. Actors of other races are rallying behind who aren't black e.g. Clooney and Ruffalo. When #OscarsoWhite happened last year, I'd say it wasn't that much of a fuss because there wasn't a substantial amount of diversity within the films that year. This year on the other hand, there could very well have been actors of other races being nominated since the films this year was not bare of diversity. As others have noted, the membership voting is a problem and that's something the AMPAS has to seriously deal with but it'll be difficult to change considering how the conditions were established for membership voting.

On another note that is related in a way, there is the issue of making of the films. Even if a film proposed has a substantial amount of diversity within the cast, it can end up white washed once it gets through casting since there aren't many actors of other races that can carry a film. You can say blacks do have them but no doubt it is disproportionate white over other races. I mean look at the Aloha controversy.