After announcing the 2020 Oscar nominations on Monday, the Academy is being criticized for its mostly white nominees and overall lack of diversity.
People were upset that a number of nonwhite actors were snubbed for their performances this year, despite having been recognized and nominated for Golden Globe, Critics' Choice, and Screen Actors Guild awards. The snubs included Awkwafina in The Farewell, Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers, Eddie Murphy in Dolemite Is My Name, Lupita Nyong'o in Us, and Jamie Foxx in Just Mercy, among others. Queen & Slim director Melina Matsoukas was also snubbed.
Cynthia Erivo, who played Harriet Tubman in Harriet, is the only nonwhite actor nominated.
Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-ho, was also nominated for six Academy Awards. It is the first South Korean film to be nominated in the Best Picture, Best Director, and Best International Feature Film categories. It was also nominated for Best Production Design, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Screenplay.
Some people even revived the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag, a movement created in 2015 by April Reign to highlight how white Oscar nominations and awards remain.
“One Black acting nominee ... despite a plethora of chances to reward so many amazing performances from Black, Latinx and Asian actors this year,” @mathewrodriguez tweeted. “One nominee doesn't excuse this #OscarsSoWhite lineup.”
Twitter user @thekareem wrote, “Lupita Nyong'o Jennifer Lopez Awkwafina. I saw more conversations about how good these 3 performances were than all of the Oscar nominees combined. The Academy is dooming itself to irrelevancy. #OscarsSoWhite.”
Lupita Nyong'o Jennifer Lopez Awkwafina I saw more conversations about how good these 3 performances were than all of the Oscar nominees combined. The Academy is dooming itself to irrelevancy. #OscarsSoWhite
Writer Roxane Gay also tweeted about how notable women and women of color were left out of this year’s nominations: “Every year the Oscar nominations are a hot mess but this year offers a particularly heated mess. To overlook Lulu Wang, Melina Matsoukas, Greta Gerwig, Lupita N’yongo and J. Lo. Smh. Did the academy even watch movies this year?”
The Academy is also being criticized for only nominating men in the Best Director category when many of 2019's most acclaimed movies were directed by women. Only five women have ever been nominated for Best Director in the history of the Oscars: Lina Wertmüller in 1976, Jane Campion in 1993, Sofia Coppola in 2003, Kathryn Bigelow in 2009, and Greta Gerwig in 2017. Bigelow is the only woman to have won the award, which she received for The Hurt Locker.