Despite a year with an acclaimed biopic about Martin Luther King Jr., this year’s Oscars acting class will be completely white. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, has been put on the hot seat and had to respond to the backlash from the public.
Boone Isaacs, who is African American, spoke with the Associated Press and insisted that AMPAS does care about outreach to minorities and women.
“In the last two years, we've made greater strides than we ever have in the past toward becoming a more diverse and inclusive organization through admitting new members and more inclusive classes of members,” Boone Isaacs told the AP. “And, personally, I would love to see and look forward to see a greater cultural diversity among all our nominees in all of our categories."
As previously noted, this is the first time since 1998 that all 20 actors nominated for Oscars are white. The overall snub of Ava DuVernay’s Selma was widely the reason, as the film only scored two nominations - Best Picture and Best Original Song for John Legend and Common’s “Glory.” Star David Oyelowo wasn’t nominated for Best Actor and DuVernay wasn’t nominated for Best Director.
Boone Isaacs didn’t say if the Academy was embarrassed by the lack of minorities in the acting class, but said they all deserved their nominations. She also pointed out that nominees are picked by their respective branches (so only directors pick Best Director, only actors pick Best Actor and Actress, etc.). However, all Academy members can pick Best Picture. In addition, there are around 7,000 people with Academy membership.
Back in 2012, the Los Angeles Times did a study on the Academy, finding that almost 94 percent of its members are Caucasian and 77 percent are male. At the time, just 2 percent of the Academy members were black and under 2 percent were Latinos. The median age of members is 62.
“It's nominated for the Oscar for best picture,” Boone Isaacs said of Selma. “It's an award that showcases the talent of everyone involved in the production of the movie Selma.”
image of Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com
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