Another amazing year for film has passed, which means it’s time for the Academy Award nominations to be released. Todd Phillip’s “Joker “  is currently this year’s frontrunner, receiving eleven nominations including Best Picture. Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, Sam Mendes’s “1917”, and Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” follow closely behind with ten nominations, including Best Picture.

There was a lot of buzz on social media regarding this year’s nominees. The Academy was heavily criticized on Twitter for its lack of diversity within the categories. Cynthia Erivo was the only non-white nominee and was nominated for Best Leading Actress for her role in “Harriet” as Harriet Tubman. Many people on social media expressed their issues with the Oscar’s lack of diversity and actors of color they felt were snubbed. Some of these include: Awkwafina for “The Farewell”, Lupita Nyong’o for “US”, Eddie Murphy for “Dolemite is My Name”, Jennifer Lopez for “Hustlers”, Jimmie Fails for “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” and Park So-dam for “Parasite”.

The Oscars are not the only awards show this year to receive criticism for its lack of diversity. The Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards and the BAFTA were all met with similar outrage for its abundantly white nominees and lack of female directors. 

The Academy also followed the trend of nominating no women in the Best Director category. With films such as “Little Women” directed by Greta Gerwig, “The Farewell” directed by Lulu Wang, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” directed by Marielle Heller, “Honey Boy” directed by Alma Har’el and many more, it’s extremely disappointing that female directors were shut out of this category. It’s frustrating as a young woman to see stories made by women often go underappreciated and unrecognized by major awards ceremonies. There have only been five women ever nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards and Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman to ever win this award for 2009’s “The Hurt Locker”. 

As we enter a new decade, we can only hope that more actors of color and female directors are recognized for their hard work and talent. But until then, we have to deal with yet another year of male domination and #OscarsSoWhite.