As the Academy awards has come under criticism for not nominating any black or minority actors for the second year in a row, more voices are pointing out the lack of inclusiveness in the Oscars and urging the Academy to do more.
Now Oscar winning actors George Clooney and Lupita Nyong’o have lent their voice to the chorus opposing the absence of diversity among Oscar nominees, BBC reports. Lupita, who won an Oscar in 2014 for best supporting actress in 12 Years a Slave, said that “the awards should be a diverse reflection of the best of what our art has to offer today”.
Meanwhile George cloonet said that the Academy Awards were “moving in the wrong direction”, and advised that, “we need to get better at this. We used to be better at it.” With this he joined actor Jada Pinkett and director Spike Lee, who have already criticised the “lily white” Oscars.
While speaking to Variety, Clooney said, “If you think back 10 years ago, the Academy was doing a better job. I think around 2004, certainly there were black nominees – like Don Cheadle, Morgan Freeman, and all of a sudden, you feel like we’re moving in the wrong direction.” He added, “by the way, we’re talking about African Americans. For Hispanics, it’s even worse.”
After coming under fire, the Academy issued a statement admitting that change is not coming as fast as they would like, and promised to conduct a review of the membership recruitment in order to bring “much needed diversity”.