Did #OscarsSoWhite work? Looking beyond Hollywood’s diversity drought

Nonetheless, Moonlight is almost certain to be beaten to the Oscar by the so-white La La Land. Nor is Jenkins likely to take the best director statuette. It wont be a woman who beats him either: for the seventh year in a row, all of the nominated directors are men.

Viola Davis, born on a former plantation and who plays a put-upon wife in Fences, is almost certain to win best supporting actress. However, she remains uncertain how much progress has been made: What still is a deficiency is that one year we have a plethora of African-American movies and then the next year nothing.

The Academy is trying to diversify its makeup. Members who have been retired for more than 10 years are to be stripped of their voting rights. Meanwhile, female and ethnic-minority novitiates are being sought out. The plan is to double the number of women and minority members over the next three years. However, some believe this will be impossible with Hollywoods current workforce.

A University of Southern California study of top-grossing films published this month found that just 4% of their directors were women, while 5% were black, and 3% were Asian. During the last 10 years, none of these figures has risen. The reports lead author, Stacy Smith, says: When the lens is this skewed, it offers a tilted view of society to audiences.

Researchers found that studio heads thought black directors were suited to comedies or dramas featuring black casts, not tent-pole blockbusters. They associated female directors with small, independent films that didnt make money. There are many women directors ready to work at the top level of the business, says Melissa Silverstein, who founded the advocacy group Women and Hollywood. Theyre just not given the opportunities to do so.

The behind-the-camera talent pool from which directors are drawn is also dominated by white males. This years edition of the annual Hollywood Diversity Report, published on 23 February by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) found that women and minorities are underrepresented in every field of work surveyed.

Last year, the black British director Steve McQueen told the Guardian: Its like Johannesburg in 1976, if you go behind the scenes. Now, Moonlights Joi McMillon has become the first black female nominee up for the editing Oscar. My hope is that this year will be the catalyst of change by shining a light on the underrepresented, she says.

The report shows that white male dominance behind the camera is reflected in white male dominance on screen. Among film leads, minority actors were outnumbered by three to one and women by two to one. Industry leaders have blamed such bias on economics, and audiences have indeed resisted minority performers. Asked to explain the whitewashing of Gods of Egypt, Chadwick Boseman, who played Egyptian god Thoth in the film, explained: People dont make $140m movies starring black and brown people.

Preference for white actors and stories has been attributed to a racial empathy gap, but there are signs that this practice is weakening. Last month, Hidden Figures, which celebrates black female Nasa mathematicians, topped the US box office for two weeks. The UCLA report found that films with relatively diverse casts had the highest median global box-office receipts. The numbers show diversity sells, says the reports author, Darnell Hunt.

This discovery, combined with social pressure, is having an effect. Boone Isaacs thinks theres been quite a bit of progress over the last year. Disneys chief diversity officer, Paul Richardson, claims: Diversity is a pillar of our growth strategy. His studio now boasts 32 full-time staff who work on diversity and inclusion.

Results of its work can be seen on screen. Disneys Rogue One: A Star Wars Story surprised some fanboys by casting Felicity Jones as its action hero. It pitted a gang of multicultural rebels against a white-ruled evil empire, which prompted a boycott call from white supremacists decrying its anti-white agenda an achievement of sorts, perhaps.

The representation of people of colour does seem to have improved. Not long ago, films such The Help, The Butler and Selma handled black people with kid gloves. Increasingly, cinema is bold enough to present them as rounded people with whom everyone can identify. Hispanic and Latino people, who form a larger proportion of the US population, could justly complain theyre neglected in comparison.

Gay people also enjoy richer and more sympathetic portrayals today than in the past, but some think there is further to go. Matt Horwood, communications officer of the charity Stonewall, argues: We must see lesbian, gay, bi and trans characters in film better reflect the full diversity of the LGBT community.

Less high-profile minorities continue to be ignored, patronised or negatively portrayed. Mental illnesses such as personality disorders and schizophrenia are still misunderstood as dangerous and violent, says Alison Kerry, the head of media at Mind. She points to M Night Shyamalans Split, which she believes uses dissociative identity disorder as the monster in this movie and dehumanises the condition.

The treatment of women remains problematic. Strong female characters are no longer scarce, but earlier this month Oscar winner Geena Davis said that women on screen are overwhelmingly sidelined, hypersexualised or simply not there.

Some think female action stars, such as Felicity Joness Jyn Erso in Rogue One, pressure women to ape masculinity. Liberation seems to be equated with psychopathy in the likes of Gone Girl or dissolution in The Girl on the Train.

In Hollywood, such concerns take second place to the bottom line. In Europe, however, cinema is subsidised by the state. You might think this gives film-makers more scope to consider social objectives. But the continents film industry has its own problems.

A new Bafta report concludes: A culture that values fitting in and who you know remains a major barrier to increasing diversity. As in the US, women and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the UKs film workforce. Here, however, class is also an issue. Britains actors are famously posh, but many of the people they work with also have a privileged background.

Still, reform has been far more vigorous in Britain than in either the US or elsewhere in Europe. The British Film Institute has unleashed a galaxy of programmes, initiatives, masterclasses and mentoring schemes. When the impact was limited, it introduced diversity standards that film-makers must meet to receive public funds. BFI chief executive Amanda Nevill calls the system ruthless, but explains: Money talks, frankly.

The standards govern on-screen representation and subject matter, behind-the-camera leadership, help for newcomers and the diversification of audiences. Producers must tick a specified number of boxes in at least two of these four categories or be barred from funding.

Some have asked what impact the standards will have on creative freedom. All the same, theyve been accepted by the industry without complaint, and in December Bafta announced it would extend their remit to its annual awards. From 2019, films that fail to meet the standards will be ineligible for the categories of outstanding British film and outstanding debut.

For some, this was a step too far. Boone has said the Oscars will not be following suit, while Tory MP Philip Davies said: In the real world, the vast majority of people believe in merit, and want awards to go to the best films rather than the most politically correct films.

Even Guardian readers attacked the move. What a moronically stupid thing to have done, wrote RealityBitesDog below the line. Commenters didnt only complain that the awards would be discredited and minorities patronised. Pyeshot observed: This kind of do-gooding social engineering is precisely why we have a Tory government and Ukip polling level with Labour.

Last years political upheaval is a reminder that assumptions considered unquestionable in polite society arent necessarily shared outside it. Excessive action on diversity could alienate the public. Fewer than a quarter of Americans supported last years #OscarsSoWhite boycott.

When Nate Parkers The Birth of a Nation premiered at Sundance in 2016 he was given a standing ovation before the screening began. But in cinemas the film flopped, because, well, it was actually a turkey. That didnt bother the Sundance crowd: anything about slave rebellion was automatically a masterpiece.

Such behaviour undermines minority cinema, implying that you neednt expect it to be good. Virtue-signalling celebrity speeches at awards ceremonies could also prove off-putting. So might over-the-top whingeing: complaints that La La Land ignores the black, Hispanic and gay communities in Los Angeles, culturally appropriates jazz and insults women because its female lead is a wuss provoke understandable irritation.

Faced with the charge that his satire on 1950s Hollywood, Hail, Caesar!, was a bit too white, its director Joel Coen replied: You dont sit down and say, Im going to write a story that involves four black people, three Jews and a dog, right? Wrong, according to noisy protesters. When Charlotte Rampling suggested the Oscars boycott was racist to whites, she was forced to recant. Plenty of filmgoers, however, might have agreed with them both.

Some diversity hardliners want favouritism shown towards minority nominees in awards voting. Awards shows have several functions: to reward excellence, but also to show the many forms excellence can occupy, says Pulitzer-winning critic Mary McNamara.

Others want aggressively colour-blind casting and characters gender-swapped to increase the number of women in leading roles. Some want studios to restrict key executive roles to minority candidates. But excessive demands could damage their cause.

An industry that can deliver Moonlight, Hidden Figures, Fences, 20th Century Women, A United Kingdom, Lion, Loving, Elle, I Am Not Your Negro, The Pass, Life Animated, 13th, Jackie and Notes on Blindness isnt faring too badly on the diversity front. More may need to be done, but it needs to be done judiciously.

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