At The 90th Academy Awards, An Object Lesson In Diversity

One thing you could say unequivocally about Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony: It was a showcase of diversity.

Presenters, nominees and winners alike reflected a wide mix of races and nationalities, so much so, that presenters Maya Rudolph and Tiffany Haddish got one of the biggest laughs of the night when the former asked, “Are the Oscars too black now?” The punch line was even better: “Don’t worry, we just came from backstage and there are tons of (white people) back there.”

Having people of color and a heavy international presence onstage is surely a good thing, but it doesn’t necessarily translate to diversity on the set or in studio boardrooms. You can certainly ask the female artists of the industry about this, but the answer is perhaps most plainly put by the fact that only one woman was in the running for best director this year and she was the first that category’s seen in eight years. Meanwhile, the nominees for best cinematography category included its first female nominee EVER in Rachel Morrison. This having been the 90th anniversary of the Oscars, you can see why I capitalized EVER.

There’s reason for hope. Hollywood still has plenty of ground to make up, but the trend in industry hiring for



Source: wbur.org


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