Oscars So White!

 Ava DuVernay directed biopic Selma. It features David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King. It is an account of the march from Selma to Montgomery during the 1965 Civil Rights protest.

A huge controversy has ensued. The Academy Awards nominations came out and it became a literally shutout for minority actors, directors, women and movies.

The nominations were mostly White male and older celebrities. Not many of the nominees are Black, Asian, Hispanic or women of color.

For the third time since 1995, the 20 Academy Award acting nominations were only for white actors and actresses. The first was in 1998 and second was in 2011.

David Sims of The Atlantic states "the surprising coolness towards Martin Luther King, Jr. biopic Selma—nominated for Best Picture but missing in the Director, Actor, and Original Screenplay categories—with the fact that all 20 acting nominees this year are white, the first time such a thing has happened since the Oscars honoring the films of 1995."

Selma is directed by Ava DuVernay, herself an African-American female.

The Guardian columnist Bidisha also notes the overwhelmingly white nominee list while also discussing the fact that "every nominated best director, screenwriter, screenplay adapter and original score composer is a white man," which suggests that there is an inherent lack of female representation in the Oscars this year beyond the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories.

There was also some negative reaction from critics due to The Lego Movie not receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film.

John Legend and Common were nominated for an Oscar.

Similar reaction also came from singer Lorde not being nominated for Best Original Song for "Yellow Flicker Beat" from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.

There was also criticism from James Gunn regarding the fact that The Lego Movie was snubbed and Jake Gyllenhaal was not nominated for his performance in Nightcrawler while Dan Gilroy has received a nomination.

Foxcatcher's lack of a Best Picture nomination garnered some criticism as well as despite the director Bennett Miller, screenwriters E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, and actors Steve Carrell and Mark Ruffalo all receiving nominations, the film itself did not.

On the bright side, John Legend and Common were nominated for an Oscar.

The famed R&B singer and rapper were nominated for Best Song for the movie Selma. Glory" from Selma – Music and Lyric by John Legend and Common: performed by John Legend and Common.

Your thoughts on the matter?

Do you believe that the Motion Picture Industry snub of non-White performers was a good idea?