…understanding of a new sphere
… a more networked globalspace
…trigger artistic collaborations
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, otherwise known as the Oscars, is beginning to live up to its claim of being a global Academy Award, as it is becoming more broadly inclusive and representative.
The Acadamy recently appointed five Nigerians into its Board. They are veteran actor Richard Mofe-Damijo, movie producers Jadesola Osiberu and Kunle Afolayan, film writer Shola Dada and film director CJ Obasi.
Before now, the Academy has been criticised for being un-inclusive and concurrently biased in its selection of nominees and eventual selection of awardees.
In a story by Leah Asemelash published by CCN, it was stated that “year after year, the conservation surrounding mainstream award shows is the same; where is the diversity?
The Oscars is not left out, as they have been increasingly criticised by observers who have noticed that there is a diversity problem, and for an Academy Award that purports to be global, its selection process is inherently biased and in favor of a certain race and class, as producers, actors, actresses and directors from other parts of the world, such as Africa, Asia and the Middle East, have felt left out and seemly neglected by the Academy over the years.
According to Statista, the distribution of voters at the Academy Awards in 2022 by ethnicity was approximately 81% white and 19% non-white. With the discovery of this and similar occurrences previously, there had been outcries by movie industry practitioners around the world.
According to an Oscar insider, in an analysis of the Top four acting categories, a large gap was found between the numbers of nominations given to white people, compared to people of colour in the past four years.
Another way to look at how bad the Academy is at diversity; over the past decade, it gave 74 total nominations to people of colour. In 2011 alone, it gave 72 nominations to white creatives.
And all this is associated with the racial and cultural imbalance in the Board, which is reflected in their choice of content to nominate and award. This is not to say that the board is racist, but it is hard to judge films from other parts of the world when you do not know or understand the culture and the inspiration behind it. Most times you can only appreciate it, but to properly judge it, you have to understand it.
So, with the inclusion of diverse people, races, cultures, experiences, and values, it gives the Academy a wider range of coverage which will enable it to live up to its goal to be truly global.
This is what the appointment of these five distinguished Nigerian artistes does for the Academy. It broadens the Academy’s scope and brings capacity by way of personnel with an understanding of cultures, customs, norms and nuances in the creative arts outside of America.
These inclusivities also promise to foster artistic cooperations, collaborations and appreciation, across space, mind and time divides, grow the global industry and bring about greater social understanding.
Thus the world is enriched.
It is a step in the right direction, but perhaps the greater message is that there will always be space to inch upwards, sideways, round and about in the craving to be better at what we do.
