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Oscars 2016

belboid said:
Has anyone ever said the Oscars go to the most deserving recipient? No, everyone knows they are all sorts of bollocks, with buggins turns and outright tokenism often to the fore. There were plenty of potential non-white nominees this year (and the hashtag is #OscarsSoWhite, not #OscarsUnfairToBlackPeopleButWhoCaresAboutLatinos), way beyond Elba - Jackson, del Toro, Jordan, anyone in the cast of Tangerine. But we do get nominations for the very straight and uninspired performances from Fassbender and Winslett in Steve Jobs, or Stallone for Creed. That they are on the recieving end of the tokenism indicates the academies racist bias.
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Getting into personal opinions about performances will just run in circles. There is no consensus that the nominated performances were undeserving. Sure, they could have nominated performances by African American or Latin actors which nobody would have quibbled with, but then they could have also nominated several more white performers too which I think were deserving.

I disagree that not nominating black actors this year proves that the academy is racist, however it proves that the Hollywood film industry is.
 
Reno said:
I disagree that not nominating black actors this year proves that the academy is racist, however it proves that the Hollywood film industry is.
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it's kind of like the Bechdel Test - one film not passing doesn't make that film sexist, but 70% of Hollywood output not passing shows quite clearly that the system is. The Oscars are another representation of that. Which does make them racist, even if 'only' as a reflection of the wider racism within the system.
 
Orang Utan said:
The existence of that Steve Jobs film mystifies me. Just who wants to watch a biopic of a computer salesman?
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You could say the same about Citizen Kane. Why would anybody make a film about a newspaper salesman ?

I haven't seen the film yet, but from what I read it's not a straightforward cradle to grave biopic, it uses three specific points in Steve Jobs career and apparently it's far from flattering. The Social Network used David Zuckerberg to explore the idea of intellectual property rather than being a biopic, so I think this does something similar.
 
Reno said:
I haven't seen the new Star Wars film but I do think its a good thing that it has a far more diverse leads than previous Star Wars films. Not awards fodder, but this type of colour blind casting is what needs to happen much more.
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This is the key, isn't it? How many black actors are cast for parts where race is irrelevant? Hardly any - being black is a 'thing', where being white isn't.

This is also where a system whose casting is based on star rating operating within a racist society is bound to reflect that society's racism. How many black stars are there who will be cast for parts where race is irrelevant? Will Smith. Anyone else?

It's depressing to see how many films are still made where there very clearly isn't colour-blind casting. As I think you said, you might not be able to identify the problem just from one film, but the pattern across Hollywood is really clear, and how many people seem to care?
 
I've noticed in the last year or two that a lot of adverts feature inter racial couples (always one black and one white partner), whereas a few years ago they did not. Hopefully this is leading to a trend for film-makers to totally ignore race when casting, unless the race is pivotal to the role of course.
 
The phenomenon is most noticeable, I think, in sci-fi, in which nearly all the characters are race-irrelevant. I've seen a chart showing the number of sci-fi films with black actors in leading roles, and there are some but not many. Then you look a bit closer and see that those 'some' are nearly all Will Smith!

An example I watched the other day: Interstellar. Set in the near-future, and any of the characters could have been black. But none of the leading roles were. There was one token black scientist, who had no backstory to speak of, no emotional complexity. No change since the 70s really, except perhaps that he was the second one to get killed, rather than the first.
 
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littlebabyjesus said:
How many black stars are there who will be cast for parts where race is irrelevant? Will Smith. Anyone else?
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TheHoodedClaw said:
Denzel, but that's it I think.
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Female black actors often get cast in roles where race isn't an issue. Thandie Newton (Mission Impossibe II, 2012, The Truth About Charlie, Vanishing on 7th St, Retreat), Paula Patton (Mission Impossible 4, Deja Vu, Mirrors), Halle Berry (Die Another Day, The Call, etc) and a few others.
 
Reno said:
Female black actors often get cast in roles where race isn't an issue. Thandie Newton (Mission Impossibe II, 2012, The Truth About Charlie, Vanishing on 7th St, Retreat), Paula Patton (Mission Impossible 4, Deja Vu, Mirrors), Halle Berry (Die Another Day, The Call, etc) and a few others.
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Probably not coincidentally, all three of these are mixed-race with one white parent.

There's another phenomenon here. Halle Berry also gets cast in roles that are race-specific - black. Then you get a mixed-race-specific role given to a white actor like Angelina Jolie...
 
D'wards said:
I've noticed in the last year or two that a lot of adverts feature inter racial couples (always one black and one white partner), whereas a few years ago they did not. Hopefully this is leading to a trend for film-makers to totally ignore race when casting, unless the race is pivotal to the role of course.
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I've noticed that as well. However, I don't think the casting of those adverts was at all race neutral. They intended to portray of mixed race couple to pander to the growing percentage of such families. That way they can pretend to be race neutral, without all that pesky fairness getting in the way.
 
I believe that i have an idea that will guarantee Denzil Washington an Oscar.

He should do a film about Shirley Chisholm the first African American congresswoman. The first African American to run for president. The first woman to run for president. Before Hillary Clinton, there was Shirley Chisholm - BBC News

He looks a bit like her and the Academy loves gender crossing performances. Tootsie got ten nominations. Boys don't cry got Swank an Oscar.
Unfortunately my ability to write a screenplay about being a black women in politics is severely hindered so i can't cash in on this idea.
 
ffsear said:
Poor Hollywood a-Listers, life must be tough.
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I don't think Michael B. Jordan is an A-lister quite yet and if racism stops him from getting decent roles, he'll never get there. That goes for a lot of people of colour in Hollywood who are far from A-list and who just want to work.
 
Reno said:
I don't think Michael B. Jordan is an A-lister quite yet and if racism stops him from getting decent roles, he'll never get there. That goes for a lot of people of colour in Hollywood who are far from A-list and who just want to work.
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You've taken first world problems to a whole new level there pal!
 
ffsear said:
Were discussing Hollywood, not the world. Am i allowed to say that i didn't think Michael B. Jordan's performance was worthy of an Oscar nomination? or does that automatically make me racist!
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I'll just be charitable and assume you've blundered into a discussion where you have no idea what the issues at stake are. Maybe read the thread and get an idea where people stand on this. Got more important things to do than to repeat all of it for your benefit.
 
Gromit said:
Danny Glover
Morgan Freeman
Laurence Fishburne
James Earl Jones
Idris Elba
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Before your list gets much longer, I think maybe I ought to clarify the point. Black actors cast in leading roles (star roles) in colour-blind casting (race of the character is not relevant to the story, so an actor of any race can be cast). Most lead roles in most films are characters that are not really in any way race-specific, so the scope for such casting is considerable.
 
littlebabyjesus said:
Before your list gets much longer, I think maybe I ought to clarify the point. Black actors cast in leading roles (star roles) in colour-blind casting (race of the character is not relevant to the story, so an actor of any race can be cast). Most lead roles in most films are characters that are not really in any way race-specific, so the scope for such casting is considerable.
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Has to be a lead? What about films with no obvious lead such as Prometheus?

Oh and does it have to be big screen?
 
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