The Oscars (and other awards)

I understand the frustration with the lack of ethnic representation in the nominees, but the Oscars themselves are not the problem. The problem is a movie business which relies heavily on films about white people. Given the sheer quantity of whiteness in mainstream filmmaking, it makes sense that the select few the Oscars honour fit into that majority.

Whats more, when you look at the black actors overlooked, there are other reasons beyond skin colour that explain the lack of their nomination. Idris Elba is probably the greatest snub, but given Beasts of No Nation is a Netflix film, I get why the Academy would ignore that. Will Smith also had some buzz for Concussion, but the film was not seen by many and those who did don't seem too passionate about it. Then you've got the cast of Straight Outta Compton, who collectively are excellent, but I don't know if any one performance really stands out (maybe Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E). Sam Jackson was awesome in The Hateful Eight, but the dude is basically doing a riff on his existing badass persona rather than challenging himself. Then you've got really well-liked films like Chi-Raq and Tangerine which are a bit too small to really make a large awards impact. People are also upset about the only person being nominated for Creed is a white dude, but Stallone was clearly the best part of the film. Michael B. Jordan gave a strong performance too, but I wouldn't say it's strong enough to warrant an Oscar nom. Ditto for Coogler's direction.

There are probably a few people I'm forgetting, but my overall point is that there are reasons why the nominees are the way they are beyond "the Academy is racist".

lol... so they are boycotting because... it was a crappy year?

Straight out of Campton was good... but not best picture good.

Last year a Mexican won best picture... 2 years ago it was a movie about Slavery...

It isn't about race at all... but OKay

They could have eliminated Bridge of Spies and Brooklyn in favor of Straight Outta Compton, Creed or Beasts of No Nation. They could have eliminated Eddie Redmayne in favor of Idris Elba. They could have eliminated Christian Bale in favor of Benicio Del Toro.

Si.

It would have saved them a lot of headaches.

They'll hire Conan O' Brien and people will complain about a white guy hosting,

They also still have two potential spaces for Best Picture nominees. I would have liked to see Creed make it.

Those two slots belong to Sicario and Ex Machina.

No way. Creed was better than both.

Movies involving white people in any capacity should be banned from nominations. It's only fair.

You're right. They should have nominated Tangerine.

I could live with that.