Oscar buzz has begun — already — and so far, there don't seem to be any people of color in the race.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Black Swan, The Social Network, The Kids Are All Right, Hereafter and The Town are contenders. But as you probably know, these movies "all feature fairly homogeneously Caucasian casts and key creative talent."
Gregg Kilday and Matthew Belloni talked to Hollywood insiders about the issue — including director John Singleton (Boyz In The Hood, Poetic Justice, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Four Brothers) — and found that (obviously) Hollywood is just not diverse enough, in general.
"It feels kind of circumstantial," one member of Hollywood's black community said about this year's lack of black contenders. "Maybe you could get some studio people to address it, but then there are no black studio executives, which is another story."
Tyler Perry's latest effort, For Colored Girls, (trailer here if you missed it) an adaptation of Ntozake Shange's 1975 play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf might be up for consideration, but no one really knows — Lionsgate has not yet begun screening the movie, which opens Nov. 5.
"African-American-themed projects are now being relegated to specialty pictures — as they were in the '80s before Spike Lee," Singleton says. There are filmmakers of color out there — The Urban World film festival, held earlier this month, had plenty of offerings. Did the writers' strike or the flailing economy make Hollywood studio heads nervous, and interested in playing it safe? Maybe. But it's sad that this year, the best American movies are not telling stories of a racially diverse group of Americans. And going by Vanity Fair's Young Hollywood issue, the future doesn't look any better.
Whitest Oscars In 10 Years? [The Hollywood Reporter]