Why Are the Acting Oscar Nominees All White AGAIN?

Posted on January 19, 2016 at 3:12 pm

Spike Lee, who accepted a special Oscar award just two months ago, has said he will boycott the award show this year in protest of yet another all-white list of nominees. He is right to be outraged. How could Sylvester Stallone be nominated for “Creed” while his co-star Michael B. Jordan and writer/director Ryan Coogler are overlooked? What about the extraordinary performances in “Straight Outta Compton” (which only got a writing nomination and the Spike Lee’s completely overlooked “Chi-Raq?” What about a nomination for Idris Elba for “Beasts of No Nation” Fans and critics are outraged, with #oscarssoswhite hashtags dominating Twitter.

The Washington Post’s Lonnae O’Neal quotes my friend and fellow critic Tim Gordon in an excellent article about the “processing disorder” in the Academy when it comes to nominations for non-white performers.

From 1927 to 1999, a total of 14 black people won Oscars in all categories, he says. In acting categories, only 24 people of color have won since 1927, according to a Post report. More than 90 percent of Oscar voters are white and nearly 80 percent are male, according to the Los Angeles Times, and those numbers directly affect the range of stories and portrayals.

AMPAS head Cheryl Boone Isaacs, an African-American woman, is unhappy with the nominations as well, describing herself as “heartbroken and frustrated.” But until the Academy starts admitting more young, diverse members, it is not going to change. Boone agrees. She says. “The Academy is taking dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership. In the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond. As many of you know, we have implemented changes to diversify our membership in the last four years. But the change is not coming as fast as we would like. We need to do more, and better and more quickly.”

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Oscar Nominations 2015: Surprises, Disappointments, Predictions

Posted on January 15, 2015 at 10:17 am

This year’s Oscar nominations are out! Most of the expected nominees made it, but there were some surprises and disappointments, especially the omission of the Roger Ebert documentary “Life Itself” and the animated mega-hit “The LEGO Movie,” both of which I expected not just to be nominated but to take home the award. It was good to see a Best Picture nomination for “Selma,” but very disappointing not to see nominations for director Ava Duvernay, star David Oyelowo. I hoped to have seen Angelina Jolie and Jack O’Connell nominated for “Unbroken” and it would have been nice to see Jennifer Aniston nominated for her brave and vulnerable performance in “Cake” and Oscar Isaac nominated for a complex, deeply felt performance in “A Most Violent Year.” I liked “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” especially (of course) the music and production design and the performance by Ralph Fiennes, but would not have given it a Best Picture nomination.

It is a big disappointment to see yet another year with no acting nominations for performers of color, and no women in the director or screenwriter categories.

I was thrilled to see Laura Dern nominated for her effervescent performance in “Wild.” Marion Cotillard is deservedly an Academy favorite, and, like Dern, gave two superb performances this year. So did also-perennial favorite Jessica Chastain, and it was a disappointment not to see her nominated for “A Most Violent Year.” And so did Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who was incandescent in two films, “Beyond the Lights” and “Belle” and deserved nominations for both.

My predictions for the top awards are: “Boyhood” for Best Picture and Richard Linklater for Best Director, Eddie Redmayne for “The Theory of Everything” for Best Actor, Julianne Moore for “Still Alice” for Best Actress, J.K. Simmons for “Whiplash” for Best Supporting Actor, and Patricia Arquette for “Boyhood” for Best Supporting Actress

Here are the nominees:

BEST PICTURE

American Sniper

Birdman

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Whiplash

BEST ACTOR

Steve Carell, Foxcatcher

Bradley Cooper, American Sniper

Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game

Michael Keaton, Birdman

Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

BEST ACTRESS

Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night

Felicity Jones The Theory of Everything

Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl

Reese Witherspoon, Wild

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Robert Duvall, The Judge

Ethan Hawke, Boyhood

Edward Norton, Birdman

Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher

J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Laura Dern, Wild

Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game

Emma Stone, Birdman

Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

BEST DIRECTOR

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman

Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher

Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Big Hero 6

The Boxtrolls

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Song of the Sea

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

BEST FOREIGN FILM

Ida, Poland

Leviathan, Russia

Tangerines, Estonia

Timbuktu, Mauritania

Wild Tales, Argentina

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Birdman, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., Armando Bo

Boyhood, Richard Linklater

Foxcatcher, E. Max Frye, Dan Futterman

The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness

Nightcrawler, Dan Gilroy

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

American Sniper, Jason Hall

The Imitation Game, Graham Moore

Inherent Vice, Paul Thomas Anderson

The Theory of Everything, Anthony McCarten

Whiplash, Damien Chazelle

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The imitation Game

Interstellar

Mr. Turner

The Theory of Everything

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Everything is Awesome, from The Lego Movie

Glory, from Selma

Grateful, from Beyond the Lights

I’m Not Gonna Miss You, from Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me

Lost Stars, from Begin Again

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Birdman

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Ida

Mr. Turner

Unbroken

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Inherent Vice

Into the Woods

Maleficent

Mr. Turner

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

CitizenFour

Finding Vivian Maier

Last Days in Vietnam

The Salt of the Earth

Virunga

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1

Joanna

Our Curse

The Reaper (La Parka)

White Earth

BEST FILM EDITING

American Sniper

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Whiplash

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Foxcatcher

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Guardians of the Galaxy

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Interstellar

Into the Woods

Mr. Turner

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

The Bigger Picture

The Dam Keeper

Feast

Me and My Moulton

A Single Life

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM

Aya

Boogaloo and Graham

Butter Lamp (La Lampe au Beurre de Yak)

Parvaneh

The Phone Call

BEST SOUND EDITING

American Sniper

Birdman

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Interstellar

Unbroken

BEST SOUND MIXING

American Sniper

Birdman

Interstellar

Unbroken

Whiplash

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Guardians of the Galaxy

Interstellar

X-Men: Days of Future Past

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Awards

Academy Originals: Creative Spark — Aline Brosh McKenna

Posted on July 18, 2014 at 3:59 pm

Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna (“We Bought a Zoo,” “The Devil Wears Prada”) talks about inspiration in this latest in the terrific Academy Originals series from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Academy Originals: Hollywood Filmmakers Talk About What Inspires Them

Posted on July 3, 2014 at 7:00 am

In this short from the terrific Academy Originals series, Seth Rogen says that it is friendship that is at the center of the stories he likes to write. “Academy Originals” is AMPAS’s first original digital series. The initiative is a documentary-style video series which examines everything from the creative process, to the moments that changed the course of filmmaking, to the artists who are charting its future. New Academy Originals are available every Monday on Oscars.org/AcademyOriginals and YouTube.com/AcademyOriginals. Check out the other episodes:

Moments That Changed The Movies: Jurassic Park
Let’s Go To The Movies with Patton Oswalt
Creative Spark: Dustin Lance Black (Screenwriter, “Milk” and “J.Edgar”)
Not Much to See: How the Blind Enjoy Movies
Creative Spark: Tina Gordon Chism (Screenwriter and director “Drumline” and “Peeples”)
Creative Spark: Ava DuVernay
Student Academy Awards Gold Medalists

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Actors Behind the Scenes Shorts Writers

Faith-Based Oscar Disqualified Song Creates Controversy

Posted on January 31, 2014 at 3:59 pm

For the first time ever, the Motion Picture Academy has disqualified a nominee for ethical reasons. The nomination of “Alone Yet Not Alone” as best song came as a surprise. Most people had not heard of the song or the movie it came from, a small, faith-based film of the same name.

The song was disqualified because its composer, Bruce Broughton, sent out an email to his friends in the Academy asking them to consider it for an award. While “for your consideration” lobbying is widespread, what concerned the Academy was that in this case it was coming from a former official of the Academy and was therefore seen as implicitly and improperly endorsed.

Now, according to the LA Times, there is a backlash, accusing the Academy of applying a different standard to small, independent films than it does to big studio movies.

Broughton has cried foul, saying he was simply trying to draw attention to his independent movie, as many in Hollywood do during awards season.

“They had previews and parties and huge promotion,” Broughton said of the studio campaigns for Oscar-nominated songs from other films, which include box-office hits such as Disney’s “Frozen” and Universal Pictures’ “Despicable Me 2.””We had no budget. There’s no Oscar campaign. All there is is this really stupid email that went out to about 70 people saying, ‘Please look at my song.'”

After sending out its statement Wednesday, the academy offered no further comment on Thursday. But already the story had gained traction, with “CBS This Morning” bringing Broughton on the air and conservative-leaning outlets such as the Drudge Report and the Washington Times setting up a Hollywood vs. Middle America battle.

“Christian Film Stripped of Oscar Nomination,” a headline blared on Drudge.

Even some in Hollywood thought that Broughton, a music personality, longtime head of the music branch and a USC professor, had been given a raw deal.

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Awards Music