Movies: Actors of Color Were Entirely Shut Out of the Oscars (Ongoing Industry Responses)

[Helico-pterFunk]

Playa - Enjoyed the film and Will's performance. Showed the persistence and work ethic of the doctor. Plenty of dialogue for him to work with & yes - felt he was deserving of a nom'. Watched it with pops as he's a long-time Steelers fan & told me more about some of the players referenced in the film, etc. Also talked with him about CTE as I follow MMA & boxing closely, and the brain discussion, rehydration concerns, injuries & more - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_traumatic_encephalopathy

 

[durham]

Benicio and Idris both deserved nominations. Benicio should have won for supporting actor, his demeanor in that last scene in the house was CHILLING. Either way fuck the Oscar's, just make our own and DONT SELL IT like BET. Shit is crazy that four white people wrote Straight Outta Compton.

 

[PJN]

Why do we accept this stupid term "people of color"?

 

[LennyNero1972]

Hey no surprise.

 

[playahaitian]

Academy Votes to Fix Problems of Race and Representation by Doubling ‘Women and Diverse Members’

Sticking to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' word that it will not tolerate another year of #OscarsSoWhite, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs has announced a four-year plan to change the face of its membership. After a unanimous vote held Thursday night, the Academy has vowed to double the number of "women and diverse members" by 2020, though they have not specified to whom, exactly, "diverse" refers. But given the public outcry over an all-white acting field of nominees for two consecutive years, we can assume they mean people of color. "The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up," Isaacs said in a statement. "These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition."

In addition to increasing diversity, the vote also modifies the previous lifetime membership for Oscar voters. Effective later this year, a member's voting status will expire after ten years, and only be renewed if that member has been "active in motion pictures during that decade." However, any member who has won an Oscar or served three ten-year terms will receive lifetime voting rights. An "ambitious, global" campaign has also been launched in an effort to recruit more diverse members. The Academy will also add three new seats to its board of governors, to be nominated by the Academy president for three-year terms. Read the Academy's full press release on the changes below:

In a unanimous vote Thursday night (1/21), the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approved a sweeping series of substantive changes designed to make the Academy’s membership, its governing bodies, and its voting members significantly more diverse. The Board’s goal is to commit to doubling the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020.

“The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition.”

Beginning later this year, each new member’s voting status will last 10 years, and will be renewed if that new member has been active in motion pictures during that decade. In addition, members will receive lifetime voting rights after three ten-year terms; or if they have won or been nominated for an Academy Award. We will apply these same standards retroactively to current members. In other words, if a current member has not been active in the last 10 years they can still qualify by meeting the other criteria. Those who do not qualify for active status will be moved to emeritus status. Emeritus members do not pay dues but enjoy all the privileges of membership, except voting. This will not affect voting for this year’s Oscars.

At the same time, the Academy will supplement the traditional process in which current members sponsor new members by launching an ambitious, global campaign to identify and recruit qualified new members who represent greater diversity.

In order to immediately increase diversity on the Board of Governors, the Academy will establish three new governor seats that will be nominated by the President for three-year terms and confirmed by the Board.

The Academy will also take immediate action to increase diversity by adding new members who are not Governors to its executive and board committees where key decisions about membership and governance are made. This will allow new members an opportunity to become more active in Academy decision-making and help the organization identify and nurture future leaders.

Along with Boone Isaacs, the Board’s Membership and Administration Committee, chaired by Academy Governor Phil Robinson, led the efforts to enact these initiatives.

 

[playahaitian]

Steve McQueen on Oscars and Industry Diversity: 'Let's Fix This'

The present state of the Academy and the film industry remind Steve McQueen of old MTV — you know, the one the late David Bowie called out for not recognizing non-white artists? The very white 2016 Academy nom-wreck has prompted the Oscar-winning director (the only black helmer to win a best picture statuette) to share similar questions and comments. "Hopefully, when people look back at [the 2016 Oscars] in 20 years, it’ll be like seeing that David Bowie clip in 1983," McQueen told the Guardian in an interview published Sunday. "Forgive me; I’m hoping in 12 months or so we can look back and say this was a watershed moment, and thank God we put that right." McQueen's comments underline the dire need to recognize more diverse artists (in front of and behind the camera) in today's cinematic landscape; his words come amid growing awards-season fallout, which has led to calls for anOscars boycott and significant organizational changes.

Though McQueen is one of the latest pros to weigh in on the#OscarsSoWhite controversy, his comments also have bigger-picture resonance: "One could talk about percentages of certain people who are Academy members and the demographics and so forth, but the real issue is movies being made," he added, pinpointing what he calls the root of the problem: "decisions being made by heads of studios, TV companies and cable companies about what is and is not being made." If McQueen had a chance to top a movie studio, he said he would "give people more opportunities to make interesting movies," because this is about "how we want to improve our environment and our society, and who we are. So, let’s get on with it. Let’s fix this." Read the McQueen interview — which also discusses his current work, as well as his relationship with Kanye — in full here.


http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/24/steve-mcqueen-oscars-whitewash-watershed-moment

 

[playahaitian]

Lena Dunham on #OscarsSoWhite: ‘We Have a Serious Problem’

Girls star and creator Lena Dunham is all for expanding many voices of many generations. "If the studio system is ignoring these voices then we have a very serious problem," Dunham told E! at Sundance, where her new HBO documentary, Suited, premiered. "And they are. This dialogue and the promises that the Academy has made is the beginning of shifting that, but what really needs to happen is that people need to take notice and give resources to these voices." Dunham was responding to the ongoing conversation generated by the fact that the Oscars nominated an all-white group of actors for the second year in a row. But Dunham, who has been mired in her own controversiessurrounding race when her show Girls first premiered, has made the argument that the filmmakers are there, it's just the resources that aren't. "The idea that there aren't enough diverse filmmakers or there aren't enough woman filmmakers to give jobs to, it's simply a fallacy and I know that because I'm here and I'm seeing the movies."

 

[playahaitian]

Stephen Furst, Animal House’s Flounder, Is Not a Big Fan of the Academy’s New Voting Rules

Stephen Furst, the actor known to many asAnimal House's Flounder and Babylon 5'sVir Cotto, has become one of the Academy's first constituents to publicly push back against the forthcoming membership and rules overhaul, alleging ageism and sexism in the process. With an open letter publishedvia Variety, the actor-director protests the organization's damage control, saying he feels "saddened, as well as offended, to learn the Academy Board of Governors has chosen to scapegoat the older members of the Academy in order to deflect the criticism about the lack of diversity this year in the nominees for Academy Awards."

Furst doesn't like the generalities made about his demographic as of late, noting he nominated"Straight Outta Compton, Beasts of No Nation, Abraham Attah, Zoe Saldana, Jason Mitchell, and Tessa Thompson" for kudos. Also, he highlights the Academy's definition of "inactive" as troublesome and claims the award show's inclusion problem "is an integrity issue, not a racism issue."

Here's an excerpt of his argument (emphasis his own):

One of the main reasons for the lack of diversity in nominees this year is that many members vote without watching all the films. I probably am in a minority myself, because I watched 95% of the screeners sent out. That’s the minority you should be focusing on preserving, because that’s how you preserve integrity in the nominations. But I seriously doubt that ANY member of the Academy refuses to nominate someone because of their race, ethnicity or gender ... The Academy does not have power over what films producers and studios make, but the Academy can take steps in assuring that member see a certain percentage of films before they are allowed to vote. Those who don’t are the people that should have their vote taken away for that season.

His solution:

Doing away with screeners and streaming the films with a password that allows the Academy to keep a tally on how many films a member actually watched would be a much better way to promote fairness in the nomination process.

It's unclear when Furst would have originally written the letter, but it was published Tuesday evening, after the Academy had unveiled both its new set of rules, as well as a FAQ-style explanation. You can read Furst's full letter here, other opinions here, and the Academy's updated FAQs here.


http://variety.com/2016/film/awards/stephen-furst-animal-house-academy-rule-changes-1201689253/

 

[playahaitian]

Oscars Chiefs Respond to Backlash Over Rule Changes: ‘It’s Not About Political Correctness’

With the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences set to diversify the face of its membership over the next four years in one of the biggest overhauls in the institution's 88-year history, the pushback has already begun. Animal House's Stephen Furst has written an op-ed calling the new rule changes — which terminate an Academy member's voting rights after ten years of inactivity — ageist. Meanwhile, Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling has walked back her controversial comments that this year's Oscar boycott is "racist to white people." Now, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs and CEO Dawn Hudson are speaking out for the first time since the Oscar changes were announced, in a long interview with The Hollywood Reporter, to further explain the changes and defend their purpose.

On claims of ageism, Hudson says the point isn't to punish older members but to weed out members who no longer participate in the industry. "They have been selected as members of the Academy, they were working in the film industry at that time, at one point in their careers, and they've moved on to a completely different field, completely different careers, and yet, because we have lifetime membership and lifetime voting rights, they are still voting on what is the best in contemporary film culture. And that's not even what our original charter said. So we are really going back to the original intention of the Academy, the creation of the Academy."

Hudson calls Rampling's comments a "generational" reaction: "You just have to make sure, as this generation grows older, you're bringing in the best of the best of the next generation, and sometimes there is a lag and sometimes there's not as much reaching out into the next generation." Both Hudson and Issacs say the changes, while accelerated by the outrage over the all-white acting nominations, date well beyond the recent cries for diversity. "It's not about political correctness, it's about building the best team, the best institution, the best artists," Hudson explains. "Because unless you have the best artists as members, unless you have the best artists voting on the Academy Awards, you don't have a real reflection of the best of our film culture. We're not talking about [just these] nominations. The nominations we can't control."

They also say they've had the full support of Disney CEO Bob Iger as well as ABC — which has broadcast the Oscars for 40 years — and have no plans to censor this year's host, Chris Rock, or ask him to step down. "We've always known he was gonna go there, right? This is Chris. We know who he is. He is a brilliant, brilliant, observant comedian and performer, and he is a brilliant host. And yes, we want him to [go there]," Isaacs says. To that point, Isaacs and Hudson say that, should Spike Lee and the Smiths change their minds about not attending this year's Oscars, they'd be welcomed "with open arms."

 

[WhenTheGoingGetsTtuff]

Of all the things whites have done over centuries now. I don't understand why so upset about this. Why such shock over this. These are the same creatures who once put humans in zoos. Nothing they do surprises me. Nor should it surprise any of you. You should be used to it by now. Whites are soulless abominations. When the fuck are you people going to realize that?

 

[playahaitian]

Danny Glover Suggests We ‘Do Away With’ Awards Shows in General and Boy, Is It a Convincing Pitch

http://video-cdn.variety.com/previews/h4srmeD7-plsZnDJi

<iframe src="http://video-cdn.variety.com/players/h4srmeD7-plsZnDJi.html" width="320" height="260" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto"></iframe>​

Danny Glover's here and he wants to remind you of an interesting little fact about movies: They are a vital form of expression that can uplift humanity and teach people how to live. In an interview with Variety at Sundance, Glover passionately breaks down the intricate interplay between film awards, financing, global distribution, and art. “We have to talk about another process: the democratization of making movies," he says. "Not 15 men deciding what you're going to see. Fifteen men saying, 'You’re going to see this movie this year and you're going to see this movie.'" Glover suggests that if filmmaking awards don't reflect the needs of the actual viewing audience, then "maybe we should do away with them." If you can hear Danny Glover's explanation and not be moved by his argument at least a little bit, then, baby, maybe you need to watch some new movies.

http://www.vulture.com/2016/01/danny-glover-suggests-we-get-rid-of-awards-shows.html

 

[playahaitian]

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[Mello Mello]

 

[Darth Furious]

ONLY WHITEY IM ROOTIN FOR IS LEO...

I cant front. They treat that cat like a nigga. Really.

Black folks need to watch when Leo gets his award and then cut the shit off.







oNE

 

[playahaitian]

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[playahaitian]

Halle Berry Says It’s ‘Heartbreaking’ She’s Still the Only Woman of Color to Win Best Actress at the Oscars

Of the many actors of color who've spoken out about the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, many have themselves been nominees, but few have belonged to the exclusive club of Oscar winners. Now the first and only woman of color to win the Academy Award for Best Actress has expressed her disappointment over the lack of progress. Halle Berry, speaking at the 2016 Makers Conference on Tuesday, says she never imagined her historic win for Monster's Ballin 2002 would be the last time a woman of color saw that kind of recognition from the Academy:

I believed that in that moment, that when I said, "The door tonight has been opened," I believed that with every bone in my body that this was going to incite change because this door, this barrier, had been broken. And to sit here almost 15 years later, and knowing that another woman of color has not walked through that door, is heartbreaking. Because I thought that moment was bigger than me. It’s heartbreaking to start to think maybe it wasn’t bigger than me. And I so desperately felt like it was.”

Berry says she knew the problem was much bigger than her when that Oscar win didn't afford her any more opportunities in Hollywood. "I realized after Oscar, not only had no other black woman walked through the door, I hadn’t gotten close either," she says. "Something was wrong and I realized that I had to be in charge of my own destiny. I had to be a part of the change of our industry, not just sitting around pontificating and talking about it and complaining about what’s not right. I had to actively start to be a part of the change and I realize that was about creating my own projects, not just for me but for other women, other women of color.” (Berry went on to produce three movies and one TV show, CBS's Extant.)

It's a harsh reality that Best Supporting Actress winner Mo'Nique also recently said didn't surprise her one bit: "How many stories have you read that a black actress signed a multimillion-dollar movie deal after winning the Oscar?" Berry, too, adds that the problem is industry-wide and won't be solved until equal representation is the norm. "It’s really about truth telling. And as filmmakers and as actors, we have a responsibility to tell the truth," she says. "And the films, I think, that are coming out of Hollywood aren’t truthful. And the reason they’re not truthful, these days, is that they’re not really depicting the importance and the involvement and the participation of people of color in our American culture."

 

[playahaitian]

This Is How Ryan Murphy Wants To Fix Hollywood’s Diversity Problem

Hollywood has a very well-documented diversity problem. Ryan Murphy is now determined to fix that problem, or at least its Burbank equivalent, The Hollywood Reporterreports.

Murphy, who produces Scream Queens, American Horror Story, and American Crime Story, is launching a foundation in conjunction with 20th Century Fox to help bring more women and minority directors into the fold. Half, the name of the foundation, refers to his mission to use women or minority candidates (he defines that term as people or color or LGBTQ people) in 50% of the directing slots on his shows.

Though Murphy has brought in more than 20 first-time directors, only a few of them have been women.

"I personally can do better," Murphy tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Women made up only 16% of the directing workforce, and minorities only 18%, in the 2014-15 TV season.

"Nanci [Ryder] said, 'People in power, you have a position and responsibility to change the industry,' and I thought, 'She's right,' " Murphy tells THR, referring to a speech given by Ryder in which she called for greater non-white-male representation throughout the TV industry.

Murphy plans to bring on a person to run Half with him. The foundation has plans to create a database of names and contact data to make available to other producers interested in joining his mission.

Half will also begin an outreach and mentorship program at top film schools, namely American Film Institute, UCLA and USC, this year before expanding nationwide in the near future.

 

[playahaitian]

Helen Mirren Says It’s ‘Unfair’ to Target the Academy With Diversity Complaints, Argues the Fault Lies With Hollywood As a Whole

Helen Mirren, who was nominated for a SAG Award this year for her work in Trumbo, but was not nominated for an Oscar, has decided to defend the Academy admist anger over its lack of diversity. In an interview with the U.K.'s Channel 4 News, Mirren said, “I think it’s unfair to attack the Academy. It just so happened this year, it went that way.” As an example, she talked about Idris Elba, who was also nominated for a SAG Award (which he won) and left out of the Oscar race.

“Idris Elba absolutely would have been nominated for an Oscar,” Mirren said of his work in Beasts of No Nation. “He wasn’t because not enough people saw, or wanted to see a film about child soldiers.”​

When asked if she was excusing the Academy, which has nominated an all-white slate of actors for two years in a row, Mirren clarified that she thinks the lack of diversity is the fault of a larger system. “I’m saying that the issue we need to be looking at is what happens before the film gets to the Oscars, what kinds of films are made and the way in which they’re cast, and the scripts,” the Oscar-winner said. “It’s those things that are much more influential, ultimately, than who stands there with an Oscar.”

Mirren joked that, much like Spike Lee, she wouldn't be going to the ceremony because she was not invited. While others, including Lee himself, have also criticized the state of the industry, they have also taken the Academy to task for not recognizing the work of people of color (including Elba, as well as performers like Will Smith or the casts ofTangerine and Chi-Raq) when they get a chance to do award-worthy work onscreen. As a result, the organization has announced plans to address its own lack of diversity by restructuring its membership.

 

[Helico-pterFunk]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...tudios-fellow-child-actor-Jacob-Tremblay.html

 

[Aww Skeet Skeet!]

I don't know if I'm seeing things, but I dvr'd a show, watched it, and saw an Oscars promo during the commercial. And I swear there was a very quick clip of Straight Outta Compton in the film montage right before a smiling Chris Rock at the end. The fucking audacity of these people.

 

[ThaBurgerPimp]

Read somewhere that they already had to escort some people from the crowds watching the red carpet arrivals cause they were chanting "OscarsSoWhite,HASHTAG,OscarsSoWhite!!!"

 

[playahaitian]

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