Rep. Tony Cárdenas says he’s “deeply disappointed” with the Academy Awards for the lack of minorities among the nominees announced Thursday.
Shortly after the nominations for the February awards were unveiled, the California Democrat wrote on Twitter:
Cardenas cited a Vox article critical of the Academy: For the second year in a row, the nearly two dozen nominees nominated in acting categories are all-white. Quoting a line from the article, Cardenas continued a mini tweet-storm, writing:
While the civil rights movement-inspired film “Selma” was among the Best Picture nominees last year and “12 Years a Slave” snagged the most coveted Oscar in 2014, none of the Best Picture nominees this time around — including “The Big Short,” “Bridge of Spies,” “Brooklyn,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “The Martian,” “The Revenant,” “Room” and “Spotlight” — feature “a single story about a person of color.”
The lack of diversity among the Oscar nominees sparked a rehash of a Twitter hashtag that gained popularity last year, #OscarsSoWhite, with many users slamming the Academy Awards.
Cardenas, whose district includes North Hollywood, tweeted:
The 2016 Academy Awards, hosted by Chris Rock (who in a 2014 Hollywood Reporter essay criticized the entertainment business, calling it a “white industry”), are set for Feb. 28.