Beasts of No Nation Straight Outta Compton, about the rise and fall of the hip-hop music group NWA, is a brilliant adaptation of real life that acquired enough critical acclaim to fit into one Oscar category.
Creed is both a spin-off, a sequel and maybe the culmination of the Rocky franchise. It’s a decent enough weekend watch with Sylvester Stallone’s performance as the aging Rocky Balboa (and a long, continuous boxing match) its only masterstroke (Stallone is nominated in the Best Actor, Supporting lineup, mostly because of nostalgia).
Chi-Raq (Amazon Studios), Spike Lee’s adaptation of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, is reset as a political and anti-violence satire set in Chicago, where women deny carnal pleasures to men in a bid to stop gang violence. It is mostly a garish, fun, lyrical tableau. John Cusack playing a padre is one of two Caucasians in the narrative, which is itself racially bias, and perhaps responsible for fanning the flames of this very uproar.
Beasts of No Nation (Netflix), which garnered critical acclaim last year with Idris Alba as a rebel commandant of young children in an unnamed African country, is probably the only title I felt was unduly snubbed.
The problem, though, is not just with the Oscars; these titles are more or less snubbed at most guild awards. Compton secured a nomination at The Producers Guild Awards held last week, but all titles were disregarded by the Directors Guild. At the Screen Actors Guild, not one of the two lead actor categories have an actor of colour (Idris Alba and Beasts of No Nation are nominated in ensemble and Supporting Actor lineups;Compton shows up in Outstanding Performance by a Cast). The Critic’s Choice Awards held on Jan 17, and the BAFTAs to be held in February, repeat the Oscar lineup, with Alba’s as exception in the latter awards.
Could it be a worldwide conspiracy then? Or is the solution simpler?
Yes, there is a lack of racial diversity in the industry, but it spans a whole and the Oscars are merely a reflection of the sum of its parts.
Every year, films of race and colour do appear in the lineup. In 2011, The Help won Octavia Spencer an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and nods in Best Picture and Actress. In 2012, Denzel Washington was nominated for Flight, and Ang Lee won for Life of Pi(since we are talking about racial diversity and not just of people of colour). In 2013, 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture, Actress (Lupita Nyong’o) and Adapted Screenplay (John Ridley); it was nominated in another six categories. Last year Selma won Best Song, and was nominated for Best Picture.
Last year also did not have any actor of colour in the four acting categories. This year repeats the pattern, probably because there is no such outstanding performance. This leads to the conclusion that, at this point, the industry is holding a necessary rally for unnecessarily prominent films. Any other year, any other lineup, and it would have been a different story.
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 31st, 2016