Oscar boycott: only white actors in nomination

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Film director Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett Smith said they will not attend next month's Oscars because only white actors are nominated this year.

Spike Lee took to Instagram to announce that he was unable to support this year's ceremony.

Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs thanked this year's nominees for their "excellent work" but said she was disappointed by the lack of diversity.

“We will be reviewing our people policies in the coming weeks to bring in the diversity we need,” Isaacs told Reuters.

“This is a time of change. As you know, we changed the procedure for obtaining membership in the Academy four years ago, but the changes are not happening as quickly as we would like,” she added. Similar changes occurred in the '60s and '70s, Isaacs said. However, today on the agenda, according to her, is the inclusion of “gender, race and ethnicity and sexual orientation” items in the academic questionnaire.

“We don’t know how to play?”

This is the second year in a row, when the list of nominees for the main film award of the year includes only white actors.

According to award critics, this year's film Voice of the Streets, about the history of the hip-hop group NWA, was nominated for best film. And Will Smith, who played the main role in the film “Concussion,” in their opinion, should have been nominated as best actor.

Will Smith's wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, posted a video message on her Facebook saying she will not be attending this year's ceremony.

“Begging for recognition or simply asking diminishes dignity and weakens power. We are worthy and we are strong,” says Jada Pinkett Smith in a video message.

She and Spike Lee made the announcement on January 15, the birthday of Martin Luther King, the legendary civil rights activist.

Immediately after this announcement, the hashtag #OscarSoWhite began to gain popularity on American Twitter.

“We don’t know how to play?” asks Spike Lee, recalling that 40 white actors have been nominated for Oscars in the past two years.

Black actors who won an Oscar:

• 2006 Forest Whitaker "The Last King of Scotland"
• 2004 Jamie Foxx "Ray"
• 2001 Denzel Washington "Training Day"
• 2001 Halle Berry "Monster's Ball"
• 1963 Sidney Poitier "Lilies of the Field"

Last year there were also calls to boycott the Oscars, but Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith, who supported the boycott of the ceremony this year, are the first stars of such magnitude to participate in the protests.

Last year’s ceremony, which was led by actor Neil Patrick Harris, showed the largest percentage drop in audience interest in six years - 16%.

The ceremony of this year, which will be held on February 28, will be led by black comedian Chris Rock. This is one of the steps of Cheryl Boone Isaacs to diversify into the Oscar ceremony.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier, a famous Hollywood actor, five-time Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio hotel to play the role of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

January 14 DiCaprio was nominated for the Oscar for the fifth time in the category "Best Actor" for his role in the film "Survivor." Prior to that, he claimed the statuette in this category for the paintings: “What Gilbert Grape’s Eaters”, “Aviator”, “Blood Diamond” and “The Wolf of Wall Street”, but did not win the award.

In addition, the work of Israeli director Evgeny Afineevsky "Winter in Fire" and the cartoon "We can not live without space" by Russian director Konstantin Bronzit became nominees for the Oscar.