So when did the Quota System start up for award shows? And who in Hollywood cares if jada and spike don't show up? Ac-list actress and a washed up director, ha-ha.

I don't go to a lot of movies; what were the African-American films or performances that got snubbed? Idris Elba is one - others?

Why aren't there any white people how get nominated for BET awards?

If this was protesting the lack of Diversity in productions, directors, or roles I'm totally down with it.

@2: Spike is the country's most prominent Black Director, recent mediocrities notwithstanding. Jada Pinkett is Will Smith's wife. If Will Smith boycotts, its a BFD. When Will Smith boycotts, it will spread, and the Academy have a giant fucking issue on their hands.

And they'll deserve it.

Was Spike expecting something for Chi-raq? Straight Outta Compton was great inky if you were predisposed to love an NWA film. Creed? Please. Oh look, Will Smith learned an accent for concussion, he should be nominated.

Was there maybe an Oscar performance in some very small largely unseen film this year?

If any one person or group thinks as jada does. Then they should speak up too. Or, they can agree to disagree with jada and spike. But everyone who can go, will go to the Oscars.

Also, if any actor bases their perception of self worth on whether they receive a hunk of metal. Then they need to get another job. There are PLENTY of very successful actors of all colors who've never won an Oscar.

The nominating committees can nominate who they want. It's their choice. They nominate based on submission by a film's studio, producer, or distributor. If that wasn't done, then the actor doesn't get considered. So to blame "The Oscars" is not a place to start as there might not have been a submission in the first place. As a private organization, they're not beholden to anyone. There are 24 categories and the only complaints are for acting. But not for the rest of them.

And, if any actor(s) doesn't like it, then don't participate in the award show process. Don't pick films based on award show potential.

No one has the right to be nominated for a Oscar. And if one's self worth is based on a nomination. Then you're one narcissistic asshole.

@9 panties bunched again?. they're not boycotting 'white people' they're boycotting the academy. you aren't listening.

@7: oh yeah, those movies and performances - like I said, I don't go to a lot of movies. Seems both Pinkett Smith and Lee are open to charges of Sour Grapism, but we'll see if it spreads.

Will Bey and Jay Z boycott? Will Ice Cube?

@ 11.. spike lee is being honored with a 'lifetime achievement award' from the academy. you know that one. they give it to be people they think are deserving but haven't received any recognition. it isn't sour grapes for him personally.

@12: not good if your honoree doesn't show. nice leverage for spike.

what can they do at this point? revise the nominees? the academy members do the voting, and they're... academy members is the polite way to describe them.

@8:

That you can make the claim "there is no such thing as 'White Supremacy' in the real world" with presumably no ironic intent is pretty appalling, to be frank. A White Person, by virtue of being White, doesn't have to directly exercise their White Privilege to benefit from it; and the fact that a relative handful of People of Color in this country have some modicum of power and influence doesn't in any way negate the overwhelming privilege of White People, most of whom can wield it without even consciously realizing they're doing so. That's the insidiousness of racial privilege: one can have it without having to think about or even be aware of the considerable privilege they possess.

@8: "There is no such thing as "White Supremacy" in the real world"
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA
Go home Sargon. You're drunk.

Spike Lee already received his honorary Oscar at the Governors' Awards dinner in November. It doesn't matter if he shows up or not: the honorees only get a brief mention at the actual ceremony. and yes, AMPAS is a private entity; the members can nominate and vote for anyone they want. they are not beholden to the public at all. in hollywood, numbers count. awards do not.

6/Max: Jada Pinkett is Will Smith's wife. If Will Smith boycotts, its a BFD.

And if Will doesn't boycott, it's a NSFJD.

@20: Seriously Sargon, as a friend I'm telling you; you need to stop day drinking.

Long-shot here...but I'm guessing Sargon is White?

@23: You are adorable

@25: Yeah "peers" who are 94% white, 77% male and a median age of 62.

#2$: I don't have a horse in this debate and I agree that the film industry is way too fucking white and racist (which is why there are so few credible films from black directors this year), but don't discount Mad Max: Fury Road because it's a genre film. From a pure film craft perspective (not just effects and stunts, but actual visual storytelling) it was easily one of the best films of the year, and one of the greatest action movies ever made. You're not really making a case when you picked an exemplary work of high-level craftsmanship to shit on.

27/Lissa: @25: Yeah "peers" who are 94% white, 77% male and a median age of 62.

It would be interesting to see who the 20 nominees would be if we could look only at the votes of the 8% who aren't white.

25/Sargon: I'm saying they are given awards based on peers seeing some skills manifest in their profession.

Ideally, the awards would be given based on merit. But, even leaving skin color aside, I'm sure there's a lot more at play (e.g. lobbying by studios, popularity of the movie) among the Academy voters than the talent the actors displayed in their roles.

@28: I agree! Mad Max Fury Road is a great movie for all the reasons you cite.

@29: I agree that would be interesting. And I think you're right about the other factors in play.

#31: Given the fact you're completely blind to Mad Max's obvious technical merits and for some reason can use one shot in the film (one I'm not particularly keen on myself) as some kind of dubious argument against the whole film, I'm curious what you consider the best film of the year. For me, it was probably Carol or Look of Silence, but Mad Max would certainly be in my top five. It's probably the most exciting and coherent action film produced in the last 20 years.

Speaking of racism... while it was nice to see that the three new main characters in the new Star Wars film were a woman, a black guy and a Latino -- although the woman could've been Native American or Thai or Uyghur instead of, yawn, white -- they were all human (or human-like.) And in the scenes with the Resistance fighter pilots, I recall seeing only one pilot that wasn't human-like. So I guess diversity is OK with it comes to human-like beings but fuck diversity where beings of tentacles are concerned.

The Oscars jumped the shark when they nominated Eminem for his role of himself, in a film about himself. They proved themselves to be hopelessly corrupt, out of touch, at the whim of politics, or all three.

@35: Eminem was not nominated for his role in the movie 8 Mile. He was nominated for, and won, Best Original Song, makings him the first hip hop artist to win an Oscar.
I remember when it happened thinking "Well there will be no living with him now."

@36: Ah. That helps. I was on my phone and couldn't check. Thanks for the correction.

@37: :)

@34, I always like to see more alien diversity as well :-).

There's no accounting for taste, obviously; I adored Mad Max: Fury Road and Creed, and can't quite find an "in" to the view that either was overrated. But regardless of personal views, which will always come down to some subjective reaction, it seems suspicious to me that not one of the films featuring non-white characters this year was deemed well written enough, well directed enough, well acted enough, or good enough in aggregate to receive some nod.

I can actually understand why someone would ignore Smith's I'm-doing-an-accent-for-a-nobly-intentioned-medical-drama-place-statue-here grandstand, but I loved the quiet simplicity of Michael B. Jordan's performance in Creed, which also benefited tremendously from Coogler's surprisingly savvy script and downright spellbinding facility in filming the boxing scenes in different styles that suited their placement in the story. Straight Outta Comptom isn't the type of thing that usually gets me out of the house (biopic, not exactly a visual feast, in either the art-punk sense or the blockbuster sense), but as a fairly acclaimed biopic, I'm a little surprised that it didn't get some acknowledgment.

I suppose we could say that Compton may have been ignored for the same reason that Smith was - that the Academy is trying to shake off its image as a champion of fuddy-duddy prestige films and embracing genre (the bracing period revenge pic The Revenant; acclaimed - rightly, to my eye, but YMMV - pulp fantasia Fury Road), but that would almost seem to favor genre pics like Creed. One could even make a populist argument for Compton; to argue against it would seem to be a blow in favor of Chi-Raq or Concussion.

As with last year, when my favorites were admittedly lily-white arthouse flicks made with studio money (Grand Budapest Hotel and Birdman), I'm not sure I would be rooting for anyone but Coogler or Jordan among the would-be non-white nominees, and I will continue to wish that more non-white filmmakers dabbled in horror flicks, surreal art films, and other genres that pique my interest (the degree to which race and bias shape interest is an interesting topic - I've done some soul-searching on the question of why punk resonates with me and R&B doesn't, or why my favorite jazz musician was a French gypsy - but it's a conversation for another post, if not another thread). That doesn't mean I don't see the implicit, insitutional racism that allows an whole communities to be excluded from recognition for their work.

And no, artists shouldn't do it for the recognition, and refusing to bring your toys to the sandbox may not be a particularly effective way of registering dissent. And I can't help but think that Smith, in particular, and Lee to a lesser degree are in positions of enough power that they can actually open the gates to a more diverse set of minority voices (not just diverse in the sense of race & gender, but diverse in aesthetic, worldview, narrative style, genre, etc.). Wouldn't that work do more to address the problem than refusing to attend a very long and expensive party that most of us watch to get drunk while bitching about famous people's fashion choices?

Still, to insist that the problem they're complaining about doesn't exist is downright myopic.

@31 - If you watch any of the featurettes on the shooting of that stunt, you'll be surprised to discover that very few of the objects flying towards the camera were CGI. The guitar was, of course, and I think that, plus the color blending made it appear animated when it was, in fact, nearly all practical. Still probably my least favorite of many, many stunts, but I think we've actually become so hypersensitized to CGI that we see it even when it's not (or barely) there.