Actress Issa Rae stuns with shady comment during Oscars nominations announcement
The actress who announced the Oscar nominations made no secret of the fact she didn’t agree with some of the nominees.
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The actress who announced the Oscar nominations overnight was clearly less than impressed that women have once again been overlooked in the Best Director category.
After reading out the nominees that include Martin Scorsese, Todd Phillips and Quentin Tarantino, actress Issa Rae said with a deadpan expression, “Congratulations to those men.”
Issa Rae deserves an award for her iconic delivery of "congratulations to those men"
— Max Baire (@bearbaire) January 13, 2020
the most diversity the academy allows is John Cho and Issa Rae as they announce a bunch of white people
— ATLANTICS DESERVED AN OSCAR NOM (@justsheavassar) January 13, 2020
I am glad that #Issarae said what she said, “congratulations to those men.†Right in that moment, didn’t wait to get home or 4 the next interview. Right then. It still amazes me the organizations, industries & rooms that see & hear the call for diversity & choose to ignore it.
— Jennifer Streaks (@jstreaks) January 13, 2020
Seriously, it's absurd that there was only one person of color nominated this year, and even more absurd that it was for Harriet, which was such a thoroughly meh, tropey movie.
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) January 13, 2020
Us, Parasite, The Farewell, Hustlers, Clemency etc all deserved acting nominations over Harriet. https://t.co/Iy9OvFqLUh
Despite a year in which women made historic gains behind the camera, female directors were again shut out of the Best Director category.
The most likely candidate was Greta Gerwig (Little Women), who was the last woman nominated two years ago for Lady Bird.
In response to the all-male nominees, an Academy voter who asked not to be named told AFP, “Unfortunately there are just five nominees … I don’t think it’s a vote against female directors.”
In the history of the Oscars, only five women have ever been nominated for Best Director.
Congratulations to the Directing nominees! #OscarNoms pic.twitter.com/wAnN2RM6Ld
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) January 13, 2020
In an industry criticised for its lack of diversity, the Oscars picked only one non-white acting nominee, British star Cynthia Erivo, who plays US antislavery icon Harriet Tubman in Harriet.
Notable snubs included Eddie Murphy for blaxploitation biopic Dolemite Is My Name, Jennifer Lopez for Hustlers, Awkwafina for The Farewell and Lupita Nyong’o for Us. Industry website Deadline called this year’s nominations “basically #OscarsSoWhite Part 2: #OscarsSoWhiterAndWithMoreMen”, referring to a hashtag begun in 2015 in response to the lack of diverse nominees.
Last year, three of the four acting Oscars went to non-white performers. But in a possible sign of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ increasingly international outlook, Parasite became just the sixth non-English language movie to be nominated for both best foreign-language film and best picture.
And the Academy pointed to a record number of female nominees overall, at 62. The figure includes movie producers and technical categories such as best musical score, where Icelandic maestro Hildur Gudnadottir became the ninth woman nominated.
Originally published as Actress Issa Rae stuns with shady comment during Oscars nominations announcement