Last updated on April 5th, 2019 at 02:34 pm
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this year’s major Oscar nominations early Thursday morning and revealed that the civil rights film Selma had been passed over for all of the major awards other than Best Picture. The film did pick up one other nomination besides the Best Picture nod, but it was for Best Original Song. Director Ava DuVarney did not become the first black woman to receive a Best Director nomination. Also, none of the actors in the movie scored nominations, including David Oyewolo, who was seen as an odds-on favorite to receive a Best Actor nod for his portrayal of Martin Luther King, Jr.
After the nominations had been announced, the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite began trending on Twitter. It was done to point out how both the Academy, and this year’s nominees, are overwhelmingly white and lacking in diversity. As Vox pointed out on Thursday, the average Oscar voter is a 63-year-old white male. In December 2013, the Los Angeles Times revealed that 93% of the Academy’s voters are white and 77% are male. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a shock that they tend to gravitate towards films that appeal to largely white audiences.
Below are some of the best tweets that came out after the announcement:
#OscarsSoWhite we’ll see a lot of “Je Suis Charlie” buttons on the red carpet, but no #BlackLivesMatter
— April (@ReignOfApril) January 15, 2015
#OscarsSoWhite they wear “I CAN Breathe” t-shirts. — BGD (@BlackGirlDanger) January 15, 2015
#OscarsSoWhite that even The Lego Movie didn’t get nominated for Best Animated Film because Morgan Freeman voiced a character.
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) January 15, 2015
#OscarsSoWhite They wanted to know why Selma wasn’t centered around LBJ. I’m not making this one up. — Nessa. (@curlyheadRED) January 15, 2015
#OscarsSoWhite they can’t be racist because they totally intended on seeing Selma, and it’s like the thought that counts.
— Rachael Krishna (@RachaelKrishna) January 15, 2015
#OscarsSoWhite they have a black friend — Ijeoma Oluo (@IjeomaOluo) January 15, 2015
Among the Best Director nominees, all are male and all but one is white. (Birdman director Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu hails from Mexico.) Every single nominee in all four acting categories is white. Also, aside from Selma, the other seven Best Picture nominated films have almost exclusively Caucasian casts. The lack of diversity within the nominated categories is really almost unbelievable.
There was one person who took great joy in Selma being snubbed — Rush Limbaugh. The conservative radio host took to the air Thursday and celebrated Selma not getting nominated in the major categories because it apparently makes liberals livid, especially as the announcement came close to MLK’s birthday.
It is not a good day for the left out there, folks. The Drive-By Media and several elements of the pop culture left are not happy out there today. The movie Selma took it on the chin in the Oscar nominations, and they’re livid. How dare this happen so close to Martin Luther King’s birthday. Oprah got snubbed, totally snubbed.
Here’s a message to the Academy. If Limbaugh is praising your decision-making, you’re doing it wrong.
Image via film’s website
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