Old Man Oscar Party

Something clearly has to be done about the lack of diversity at the Oscars.

Looking around the nominees at this year’s ceremony, it often seemed like only older men had been invited to the party.

Ta ke t h e b est s u p p o r t i n g a c t o r ca t e go r y fo r example. Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt were nominated. Pitt is the youngest of the bunch – and he’s 56. Where’s the youth?

Then consider the best director line-up of Martin Sco rsese, Sa m M e n d es, B o n g J o o n - H o, To d d Phillips and Quentin Tarantino – the average age of that bunch is 57.

No surprise that there were no women in the category. Shamefully, only five female directors have ever been nominated for best director in the 92-year history of the event. But a bigger injection of youth, color and women is still needed if this situation is going to change–as it must.

The majority of Academy members are still older white men and you can see that in the most nominated films all being to the tastes of that demographic. Those were a study of war (1917), a nostalgic look back at the old days of Hollywood (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), the reflections of an elderly gangster (The Irishman) and an homage to classic Scorsese films like Taxi Driver (Joker).

It’s infuriating how little change there has been in the kind of selections made for the showpiece ceremony of the movie business. If the Oscars are to stay relevant they need to change their ways and embrace the invention and insight brought by the new generation of diverse moviemaking talents.

—Sandro Monetti

Along with women, people of color were also largely excluded from this celebration of movie excellence. That’s despite there being no shortage of excellent contenders who deserved a place at the party.

As American TV talk show host Jimmy Kimmel said: “This year’s Oscar nominations had fewer minorities than Donald Trump’s cabinet.”

But the situation is no laughing matter.

To their credit, the Academy have added 2,000 extra Oscar voters over the last couple of years, most of them women and minorities.