2011: Whitest Oscars in a Decade?

Next year’s Oscars are shaping up to be the whitest Academy Awards in a decade, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Among the early lists of possible nominees, there are no blacks in the acting categories and almost no minorities at all in the major categories. Why? Partly because right now in the filmmaking industry, it’s hard to make serious movies—“let alone an ethnic-themed one,” says John Singleton, nominated twice for 1991’s Boyz N the Hood.

It’s possible a movie that hasn’t yet gotten a lot of buzz will come to the forefront. But which one? Awards consultants don’t see many possibilities beyond Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls—but even that is an ensemble drama, making it difficult for an individual performance to stand out. The lack of diversity among the nominees comes even as the Academy itself looks for a more diverse membership: “My hope is that we get more ethnicity in the Academy,” says the president.
(More Academy Awards stories.)