The nominations for the 89th Academy Awards offered more diversity than previous years, with several non-white actors and directors up for an Oscar.
Seven of the 20 actors announced as nominees on Tuesday are not white.
Actors Denzel Washingon, Ruth Negga, Mahershala Ali, Dev Patel, Viola Davis, Naomie Haris and Octavia Spencer were announced as nominees, along with directors Barry Jenkins, Raoul Peck, Herbert Peck and Ava DuVernay.
Best picture nominations included: “Fences”, a film set in the 1950s about a black American family starring Washington and Davis; “Hidden Figures”, a biographical drama about African-American mathematicians at NASA, and “Moonlight”, a coming-of-age story set in Miami.
DuVernay’s non-fiction film exploring the mass incarceration of black Americans, “13th”, was up for best documentary feature.
Aisha Harris, culture writer and editor at Slate, told Al Jazeera: “All the people of colour who were nominated this year deserved the nominations that they got.”
Previous years drew sharp criticism over a severe lack of representation. All 20 nominees in the main acting categories at last year’s Oscars were white for the second year running, prompting calls to boycott the glitzy event and a social media backlash under the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.
In response, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organises Hollywood’s annual Oscar awards ceremony, pledged last year to double its membership of women and minorities by 2020.
April Reign, who launched the #OscarsSoWhite tag, wrote on Twitter that while “things are changing because our voices are stronger together … One year of films reflecting the Black experience doesn’t make up for 80 yrs of underrepresentation of ALL groups”.
Elsewhere in Tuesday’s nominations, “La La Land”, a musical, landed a record-tying 14 Academy Awards nominations, matching it with “Titanic” and “All About Eve” for most nominations ever.
Here are the main nominations:
Best picture:
“Arrival”
“Fences”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“Hell or High Water”
“Hidden Figures”
“La La Land”
“Lion”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Moonlight”
Best director:
Denis Villeneuve, “Arrival”
Mel Gibson, “Hacksaw Ridge”
Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”
Kenneth Lonergan, “Manchester by the Sea”
Barry Jenkins, “Moonlight”
Best actor:
Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”
Andrew Garfield, “Hacksaw Ridge”
Ryan Gosling, “La La Land”
Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic”
Denzel Washington, “Fences”
Best actress:
Isabelle Huppert, “Elle”
Ruth Negga, “Loving”
Natalie Portman, “Jackie”
Emma Stone, “La La Land”
Meryl Streep, “Florence Foster Jenkins”
Best supporting actor:
Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight”
Jeff Bridges, “Hell or High Water”
Lucas Hedges, “Manchester by the Sea”
Dev Patel, “Lion”
Michael Shannon, “Nocturnal Animals”
Best supporting actress:
Viola Davis, “Fences”
Naomie Harris, “Moonlight”
Nicole Kidman, “Lion”
Octavia Spencer, “Hidden Figures”
Michelle Williams, “Manchester by the Sea”
Best documentary feature:
“Fire at Sea”
“I Am Not Your Negro”
“Life, Animated”
“OJ: Made in America”
“13th”
Best foreign language film:
“Land of Mine” (Denmark)
“A Man Called Ove” (Sweden)
“The Salesman” (Iran)
“Tanna” (Australia)
“Toni Erdmann” (Germany)
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