Oscars 2020: Snubs Win and Diversity Loses

The nominations for the 2020 Oscars were announced today, with several notable exclusions.

The contenders for ‘Best Director’ are all male, and mostly white, with the exception of ‘Parasite’ director Bong Joon Ho. A noteworthy exception from the former category is Greta Gerwig, who was excluded from the running for her critically acclaimed “Little Women’ remake. Issa Rae, announcing the nominations alongside John Cho, made a pointed remark at the category, offering her “congratulations to those men.”

Only one of the 20 acting nominations were given to an actor of colour, Cynthia Erivo, for her role as Harriet Tubman in the namesake feature. Jennifer Lopez was cut from the Best Supporting Actress category for her role in Lorene Scafaria’s ‘Hustlers,’ a role predicted to secure her a spot by 28 out of 32 leading film experts. Awkwafina also missed out on a nomination for Best Actress, despite taking out the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy just a week ago.

Other notable snubs include Taron Edgerton for his role as Elton John in the ‘Rocketman’ biopic, a role for which he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and Beyoncé, whose original song ‘Spirit’ written for the live action remake of ‘The Lion King’ missed out on a nomination.

Meanwhile, major successes from the nominations came for Todd Phillips’ ‘Joker,’ which took out the most nominations (11). Scarlett Johansson also scored her first and second nominations at once, for Best Actress (‘Marriage Story’) and Best Supporting Actress (‘Jojo Rabbit’).

The seemingly stagnating rate of diversity within the Oscars comes despite the Academy’s attempt to diversify its largely white and male voters since 2015’s ceremony, which birthed the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. Female directors were also the best represented on record in 2019, with 12 of the year’s top 100 grossing films directed by women.

Let us know who else you think should’ve scored a nomination, or who your picks for winners are.