By Dalton DeStefano ’16, Arts and Entertainment Editor

Last year’s Academy Awards screamed “progressive.” 12 Years a Slave won three awards (including the most coveted award of the night: Best Picture), three people of color were nominated in the acting categories (with one win from Lupita Nyong’o), three Best Picture nominees featured a female lead, two women were nominated in the screenplay categories, and a female director won Best Animated Feature (for Frozen). Additionally, in 2013, Cheryl Boone Isaacs became the first African-American female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the group that chooses the winners of the Academy Awards). While these statistics could definitely be improved, the general consensus was that the Academy was finally making strides to recognize different perspectives in film. However, after this year’s Oscar nominees were released, it feels as though last year’s relatively diverse awards were an anomaly, rather than the new precedent. In what seems like a regression to the 1950s, there were zero female nominees in any main categories (other than Best Actress and Supporting Actress, obviously). For the first time since 1995, every acting nominee was white. Every Best Picture nominee featured a white male lead. These shockingly traditional nominations are disappointing to say the least, especially when compared to last year’s awards, leading many to believe that the Academy (comprised of 76% men and 94% white people, with an average age of 63) feels as though they already “did their part” for diversity last year by crowning a movie about slavery as the Best Picture.

Moreover, this homogeneous white male group of nominees tends to be the norm for the Academy Awards. In the Oscar’s 87-year history, only four women have ever been recognized in the Best Director category, and only one (Kathryn Bigelow) has won. Only 10 African-American women have ever been nominated for Best Actress, with only one win. This staggering inequality creates a strong narrative—one that shows just how far we have to come as far as diversity goes even in film and media. One of the most glaring issues in the entertainment world is the lack of strong roles for various marginalized groups. In fact, Reese Witherspoon was quoted as saying she started her own production company because she saw many of her esteemed female colleagues fighting for simplistic roles that didn’t do them justice as the strong women that they are. Her production company, Pacific Standard, seeks to create strong and complex roles for women in Hollywood, and this year alone two of the films produced by Witherspoon (Wild and Gone Girl) showcased two roles that garnered Best Actress nominations.

Though improvement is evident in some areas, there is still a ton of work to do regarding diversity in the industry. Primarily, in order for marginalized groups to be heard in films, we need more directors from different walks of life (race, age, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) in order to create movies that reflect their own experiences. The industry has shut itself off to the point where white male directors, screenwriters, and cinematographers have become the norm, and it is extremely rare for acclaimed films about women, people of color, or LGBT people to be produced, let alone recognized at the Academy Awards. The industry will have to become more accessible and welcome different voices in order to create diversity in film, which is imperative in order to give the public exposure to various perspectives that aren’t always heard through mainstream media. Ultimately, while the Academy came under heavy fire this year and should be updating its archaic system to match our rapidly progressing social climate, only time will tell if diversity is recognized come next year’s Oscar season.

Update: At the Academy Awards, which took place on February 22nd, the top prize for Best Picture went to Birdman with the director, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, taking how the statue for Best Director. This marks the second consecutive win for a Mexican director in this category. Additionally, Eddie Redmayne, Julienne Moore, J.K. Simmons, and Patricia Arquette went home with the four acting awards. In other “diversity” related news, the Academy Award for a Documentary Short went to Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, which was directed by a woman (Ellen Goosenberg Kent). Additionally, multiple acceptance speeches (including Patricia Arquette’s) were focused on social justice causes, including women’s rights. Common and John Legend also gave a moving performance of their Oscar-winning song, Glory, from the movie Selma, which put a spotlight on the struggles faced by people of color in America. Therefore, though this year certainly left a lot to be desired as far as diversity goes, there were some moments that rightfully reflected the variety of perspectives and voices that can be found throughout the film industry.