Let's not forget people with disabilities, who can't even play disabled characters. Really, it's not about awards, it's Hollywood itself that's the problem.
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Variety - Oscars: Record Six Black Actors Nominated, Diversity Improves
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Let's not forget people with disabilities, who can't even play disabled characters. Really, it's not about awards, it's Hollywood itself that's the problem.
Yep that should have been the takeaway from last year.
The news that Bradford Young got nominated deservedly so for his amazing cinematography on 'Arrival' warmed my heart. As yes, his a black man but his been working relativity quietly doing his thing on a lot of very good movies for a few years now. So no one can question whether his nom is tokenism.
lightskintwin
Banned
Yes, but that doesn't help Asian American and Hispanic Americans here. African Americans do their own thing, create African American narratives, and support their movies. I can list you plenty of Asian American/Western director's and producers that are successful but they do not cast Asian Americans at all or in lead roles. Now I'm not saying they have to, they can do what they want. However, if they're not invested in changing or at least taking chances to show there's a market for these films, then Hollywood surely isn't.
I think that one of the differences between black vs other minority representation in Hollywood is that black creators and communities have been actively making films (and TV shows) about their American experience for many decades now. The majority of these films are low budget affairs that make relatively little at the box office outside their target demographic, but they help grow acting talent and (eventually) recognition.
I don't see nearly as much of that coming from the Hispanic community yet. Maybe because much of the Hispanic community are first generation Americans or born outaide of the country. It's not like the academy hasn't recognized several Latino directors in recent years. They just arent American directors.
Edit: basically said above.
I don't see nearly as much of that coming from the Hispanic community yet. Maybe because much of the Hispanic community are first generation Americans or born outaide of the country. It's not like the academy hasn't recognized several Latino directors in recent years. They just arent American directors.
Edit: basically said above.
lightskintwin
Banned
Exactly, although Black films on the low make good money. They're similar to horror movies: low risk, high reward. Not to mention African Americans created new film genres such as Blaxploitation and Hood films that have made it's impact and influenced others.
You have Lin Miranda who's first musical focused on the Latino American experience, won a Tony for it, and it's being adapted to a film which will give opportunities to other Latino Americans.
However Disney has a hold of him and they're going to use him to enrich other people's experiences such as the Polynesian film Moana, and Mary Poppins although he'll be cast in this.
This isn't a problem with the Oscars... it's a problem with Hollywood. Yet for some reason people keep shining a light on the Oscars as if it's their fault people of color aren't given opportunity to shine. The Oscar's job is to highlight the best of the best. The issue isn't people of color are being snubbed, but they aren't even given the opportunity to get to that point.
People like Denzel and Viola Davis actually put in amazing work and should get recognised. But not because their color, but because they put in better work than their peers. Will Smith didn't get snubbed, sorry to break it to you Jada, he just wasn't good enough.
However, diversity in the voting pool is an issue and so is giving people of color not even being in the conversation when these roles or jobs are up for grabs.
People like Denzel and Viola Davis actually put in amazing work and should get recognised. But not because their color, but because they put in better work than their peers. Will Smith didn't get snubbed, sorry to break it to you Jada, he just wasn't good enough.
However, diversity in the voting pool is an issue and so is giving people of color not even being in the conversation when these roles or jobs are up for grabs.
Except they don't really do that. The Oscars has more or less become a marketing engine for Hollywood to advertise lower budget films. It's why we have terms like Oscar bait and why Oscar nominated movies hit rather predictable checklists. They are apart of the problem too
lightskintwin
Banned
Yeah, I agree. The Oscars don't have anything to do with it. Hollywood is an elite predominately White institution that cultivates and develops unknown White actors to be stars. There's a huge pipeline of them that come from theater, musical theater, TV, comedy, to open auditions. That's not changing anytime soon. So it's up to people to circumvent the system and show there's a market out there for diversity or for Asian American or Latino/Hispanic American films.
Oscars have very little if anything to do with the casting of films.
Gordon Shumway
Banned
#Forced
Hasphat'sAnts
Member
Bradford Young's been doing stupendous work. Glad to see it finally recognized.
Travesty that he didn't get nominated earlier for A Most Violent Year.
Word. For a fourth generation Asian man who grew up in Queens, Hong Kong cinema is just as foreign to him as it is to the rest of America.
Travesty that he didn't get nominated earlier for A Most Violent Year.
Word. For a fourth generation Asian man who grew up in Queens, Hong Kong cinema is just as foreign to him as it is to the rest of America.
I didn't say anything about casting, friend
lightskintwin
Banned
Never even heard of that film. Will definitely watch now. Thank you.
lightskintwin
Banned
I know but improving casting of Asians and Latinos in films will increase chances to be nominated for Oscars. It's a trickle down effect.
SatoAilDarko
Member
Why is Dev Patel nominated as a supporting actor?
He's top billed and the main character?
He's top billed and the main character?
lightskintwin
Banned
The studio probably submitted him in that category to improve his chances at a nomination since Lead was so strong.
Hasphat'sAnts
Member
It's a dope movie. I watched that and Inside Llewyn Davis in like a two week span and wished I could've put money on Oscar Isaac becoming a mega mega star.
There are no requirements to be a supporting actor vs a leading actor. He was placed there because the Weinstein Company decided he had a better shot at being nominated as a supporting actor and campaigned for that.
We don't disagree but Hollywood specifically making certain movies to cater to the taste of the Academy is definitely an issue that contributes to this overall. one that the academy itself can fix by changing the demographics of its voters.
I also think that always looking to Hollywood is not healthy.
I've had a lot of conversations with PoC creatives in my day to work who are happy that the likes of Netflix and Amazon are in the business now and also looking for good content as it has meant they are more open to 'riskier' ventures and ideas, which has been a boon to them.
I've had a lot of conversations with PoC creatives in my day to work who are happy that the likes of Netflix and Amazon are in the business now and also looking for good content as it has meant they are more open to 'riskier' ventures and ideas, which has been a boon to them.
lightskintwin
Banned
After watching Fences, I actually think Viola is in the right category. Denzel was THE lead for the majority of the film.
I can't say it's the same now that they've open Best picture up. You've got a sci fi, modern western, Hollywood musical, historical space drama, stage play adaptation, historical war drama, and two other adult dramas.
I remember someone championing Civil War for being diverse, when really it's like three white women and three black dudes in a sea of other white guys.
That's all diversity means in Hollywood. They threw some white women and black males a bone, say "they should be grateful, look how progressive we are", and everyone else that feels left out "is just complaining"
Messofanego
Banned
Natasha Braier (Neon Demon)
Stephane Fontaine (Jackie, Elle)
Charlotte Bruus Christensen (Fences)
It's a great movie. I love 80s period pieces and it has a beautiful scary vibe to it.
Also for anyone who wants to specifically see Bradford Young's awesome cinematography and also a superb movie seek out 'Mother Of George'
I've seen people on here say TFA was 'diverse'.
Hasphat'sAnts
Member
Lupita's in it!
lightskintwin
Banned
Y'know what, I actually recently watched his work when I watched Dee Rees's Pariah on Netflix a couple of days ago. By the way, Dee Rees is making Oscar buzz with her new film Mudbound after it's screening this week at Sundance.
Kazuo Hirai
I really want everyone to know how much more Titanfall 2 sold than Nioh. It was a staggering amount.
Without "Your Name", call the "Diversity"
Sounds interesting.
Sounds interesting.
But it's got a black dude! And a white girl! And a latino guy who felt he had to change his name to have a chance at being marketable in Hollywood!
Woah woah woah
Let's not forget that it had a 73 year old Harrison Ford. Extremely diverse age range in the film!
What's sad is that people couldn't stand that there was a black lead to begin with.
"STORMTROOPERS CAN'T BE BLACK!"
Yeah, they have made improvements but that was after they realized their ratings were slipping. That lead to them giving movies like District 9 and Avatar best picture noms to save face the year after their ratings took a huge dip. They can still make improvements especially to how people get to be a part of the academy and I think they're doing something to that end particularly in response to last years outcry.
AlfonzoPalutena
Member
#OscarsSoWhite was so dumb. The Academy was representative of the problem, but not the source. Its production companies that aren't hiring actors and actresses of color that are the problem. The Academy can only nominate what's out there, and they snub movies of both colors equally. There's only so many slots.
If anything that dumb protest invalidated the performances that were nominated this year in some people's eyes. I've talked to people who believe that the Academy only nominated 6 black actors in response to the hashtag, which kinda sucks. Meanwhile no one with actual power has received significant pressure to change up hiring practices.
If anything that dumb protest invalidated the performances that were nominated this year in some people's eyes. I've talked to people who believe that the Academy only nominated 6 black actors in response to the hashtag, which kinda sucks. Meanwhile no one with actual power has received significant pressure to change up hiring practices.
lightskintwin
Banned
I still think nothing will change fast enough until Asian American and Latino/ Hispanic American creators feel a social responsibility to focus on their unique experiences here and create narratives supporting it and putting it out to in order to show not only that it's good to great, but that their's a market for it.
Can't argue there.
Hollywood is casting predominantly American, Canadian, UK, and Australian actors. That adds up to a lot of white people, even before you get into preferential casting.
Of the 20 acting nominations, 13 of the actors are American (9 white, 4 black). 6 are from the Commonwealth (including Ruth Negga and Naomie Harris), and the last one is the French Isabelle Huppert.
EDIT: If 1/3 of the acting roles in wide release films were actually going to non-white actors (especially the lead roles), I don't think there would be as much of an issue.
lightskintwin
Banned
I mean you have M. Night Shyamalan who has the #1 movie in America and has never created an Asian American narrative ever or more specifically an Indian American narrative in his films. Nor has he ever cast an Asian American or specifically an Indian American in a lead role; however he did hook them up to play villains in Avatar. LOL Despite his success, he's inadvertently has been a cog in a Hollywood machine for providing more opportunities for White actors and the occasional Black actor.
African Americans already know if you don't create it yourself and cast other African Americans, Hollywood isn't going to help you.
This is also true.
Well I know lots of people perceive the black community as being too "obsessed" or "loud" about race and diversity (Which I am completely fine with, rather be "loud" than silent lol), but I wonder if they see other communities like Asian Amercians as the complete opposite, that they don't seem to care enough.
lightskintwin
Banned
It's the consequence of desiring full assimilation or being labeled the "model minority" without fighting back loud enough against that. You continue to remain invisible and perpetual foreigner while focus on fitting in rather than standing out. You also become a cog in a machine designed to churn out more White media without ever questioning it and just happy helping out.
Black have such a history for organizing for our rights that it makes sense why any semblance of progress tends to be include black people first. We make the most noise.
I remember this sort of being a critique because a lot of non black people of color saw #OscarsSoWhite being #OscarsNotBlackEnough, and while black people definitely wanted to see more faces that looked like them, there was some friction because there was the perception that NBPOC expected us to do the heavy lifting to getting EVERYBODY exposure in Hollywood.
This is really the case in general. Black Americans by far and large are the most vocal minority group in America, and (in my perception and experience) lots of NBPOC sort of support us in solidarity, but don't do the same when organizing for their own communities.
I think back to my time in my college's Black Student Union, and we have the Latino Student Org and we were pretty friendly with them, but they were much less concerned about diversity issues outside of us asking them to support us when we shook the table on diversity issues at our school. Not to say that there aren't latino/asian people doing work for their communities (I'm definitely not saying that), but from my perception it's not as common in those communities as it is in ours
Watch the fourth episode of Master of None, where Indian actors are more or less set on eachother, competing for the same thankless corner.
Or the amount of criticism Mindy Kaling has received for doing absolutely fucking nothing to help Indian (or even women) creators.
The Faceless Master
Member
man, if only these other minorities would pull their own weight and be as proactive as us Blacks, we might actually get somewhere. wake up and put in some work other minorities.
The Faceless Master
Member
indeed.
lightskintwin
Banned
Also, a great video made last year from an Asian American perspective even though it's in reference to Hollywood whitewashing, his overall point is incredibly relevant to this thread.
Don't just TALK about Whitewashing
Don't just TALK about Whitewashing
TheOfficeMut
Unconfirmed Member
Any advice on how to proceed in the basement? I got the scorpion key and about 42 handgun rounds but
Takes me normally seven rounds each.
Edit: WOOOOOOW I MEANT TO POST IN THE RESIDENT EVIL 7 THREAD JESUS FUCK
there are just too many of these black mother fuckers.
Takes me normally seven rounds each.
Edit: WOOOOOOW I MEANT TO POST IN THE RESIDENT EVIL 7 THREAD JESUS FUCK
OfficeMut showing his/her true colors!
Okay cool, good to know that it isn't exactly an uncommon thought.
Wow, that is uhh... unfortunate, to put it lightly.
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