by Julia Pierrepont III
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Following in the controversial footsteps of the Golden Globes, the Oscars also stirred up a boatload of frustration when Academy spokespersons, Issa Rae and John Cho, announced the nominations on Monday for the 92nd Academy Awards.
It was a total shutout for women in the Best Director category, despite the fact that female directors have had a banner year in critical acclaim and box office, with such hits as Greta Gerwig's "Little Women," LuLu Wang's "The Farewell," Marielle Heller's "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," Kasi Lemmons' "Harriet," Lorene Scafaria's "Hustlers," Alma Har'el's "Honey Boy," and Anna Boden's (co-directed with Ryan Fleck) "Captain Marvel."
"It's 2020. The Oscars need a wake-up call," Hollywood producer Tracey Ormandy told Xinhua.
Only one female director, Greta Gerwig, has been nominated by the Academy in the past 10 years. In fact, in the entire 92 years since the Oscars began, Best Director noms have only gone to five women: Lina Wertmuller for "Seven Beauties" in 1976, Jane Campion for "The Piano" in 1994, Sofia Coppola for "Lost in Translation" in 2004, Kathryn Bigelow for "The Hurt Locker" in 2010, and Greta Gerwig for "Lady Bird" in 2017. Only one, Bigelow, actually won, beating out her ex-husband, James Cameron, nominated for "Avatar."
"Little Women" stars reacted with outrage over another all-male directing award field that shut out the woman they feel is primarily responsible for the film's success.
Variety reported Florence Pugh as saying, "This is literally why Greta made the film - one about women living in a man's world, related to money and success. This news only highlights the message of the film."
Alma Har'el, Israeli-born director of Shia LaBoeuf's "Honey Boy," has been vigorously outspoken about the exclusion of female directors from the Best Director categories of major award ceremonies.
"I was on the inside for the first time this year. These (award voters) are not our people and they do not represent us. Do not look for justice in the awards system," she'd said previously, "They're immersed in this perpetuated activity of basking in male excellence and (overlooking) this whole new world we're trying to build with new voices of women and people of color being part of the conversation."
She went on to suggest the Academy should institute separate directing categories for men and women so female directors can get the same career boost that male nominees get.
Ian Jessel, former President of Miramax International, now President of Maverix, told Xinhua, "The Academy has always been predominantly older, white men. And, until this changes, I regret the Oscars will always reflect this lack of diversity."
Much like with the 2016 Oscar's #OSoWhite scandal, diversity took a knock in all the major categories, with only one African American and one Latino nominated for any of the acting award categories and one Asian nominated for Best Director.
Cynthia Erivo was nominated for Best Actress for her stunning portrayal in "Harriet" and Antonio Banderas pulled a nom for Best Actor for his exceptional work in "Pain and Glory." South Korean Bong Joon-ho was nominated for Best Director for "Parasite."
There were plenty of other unfortunate snubs that are causing a backlash of controversy.
Awkwafina, who had a lot of Oscar buzz going in was shutout of a nomination for her role in "The Farewell," as was Oscar-winner, Jamie Foxx, for his performance in "Just Mercy."
Director Jordan Peele previously an Oscar darling with "Get Out," was entirely passed over for his latest, "Us."
Beyonce's song for "The Lion King" failed to roar, Eddie Murphy got no dynamite for "Dolemite is My Name," and perhaps the biggest snub of all was Jennifer Lopez being shut out for her poignant performance in "Hustlers."
It is worth noting that, though four foreign-born Latina women have been nominated for Oscars in the acting categories - Fernanda Montegegro in 1998, Salma Hayak in 2002, Catalina Sandino Moreno in 2004 and Yalitza Aparicio in 2018 - it's been 25 years since an American Latina has been nominated - Rosie Perez in Peter Weir's "Fearless."
Vanity Fair magazine lamented Jennifer Lopez being passed over and reported it was symptomatic of a wider, more serious problem, "While the Lopez and Nyong'o snubs are symptoms of a broad diversity issue within the Oscars, they're also part of a more specific problem: Latino exclusion and erasure."
A recent study by the USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism determined that out of the top 100 highest-grossing films between 2007 and 2018, only 3 percent included Latino leads or co-leads. Only 4.5 percent of speaking roles were held by Latino performers and a quarter of those characters were criminals.
