{Seven of 20 actors nominated for an Academy Award are not white, compared to previous years which had no representation.}
The nominations for the 89th Academy Awards offered more diversity than previous years, with several non-white actors and directors up for an Oscar.
Seven of the 20 actors announced as nominees on Tuesday are not white.
Actors Denzel Washingon, Ruth Negga, Mahershala Ali, Dev Patel, Viola Davis, Naomie Harris and Octavia Spencer were announced as nominees, along with directors Barry Jenkins, Raoul Peck, Herbert Peck and Ava DuVernay.
Best picture nominations included: Fences, a film set in the 1950s about a black American family starring Washington and Davis; Hidden Figures, a biographical drama about African-American mathematicians at NASA, and Moonlight, a coming-of-age story set in Miami.
DuVernay’s non-fiction film exploring the mass incarceration of black Americans, 13th, was up for best documentary feature.
Aisha Harris, culture writer and editor at Slate, told Al Jazeera: “All the people of colour who were nominated this year deserved the nominations that they got.”
Previous years drew sharp criticism over a severe lack of representation. All 20 nominees in the main acting categories at last year’s Oscars were white for the second year running, prompting calls to boycott the glitzy event and a social media backlash under the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.
In response, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organises Hollywood’s annual Oscar awards ceremony, pledged last year to double its membership of women and minorities by 2020.
April Reign, who launched the #OscarsSoWhite tag, wrote on Twitter that while “things are changing because our voices are stronger together … One year of films reflecting the Black experience doesn’t make up for 80 yrs of underrepresentation of ALL groups”.
Elsewhere in Tuesday’s nominations, La La Land, a musical, landed a record-tying 14 Academy Award nominations, matching it with Titanic and All About Eve for most nominations ever.
{{Here are the main nominations:}}
Best picture:
Arrival
Fences
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Lion
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight
Best director:
Denis Villeneuve, Arrival
Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge
Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Best actor:
Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
Ryan Gosling, La La Land
Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington, Fences
Best actress:
Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Ruth Negga, Loving
Natalie Portman, Jackie
Emma Stone, La La Land
Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins
Best supporting actor:
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
Dev Patel, Lion
Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals
Best supporting actress:
Viola Davis, Fences
Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Nicole Kidman, Lion
Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea
Best documentary feature:
Fire at Sea
I Am Not Your Negro
Life, Animated
OJ: Made in America
13th
Best foreign language film:
Land of Mine (Denmark)
A Man Called Ove (Sweden)
The Salesman (Iran)
Tanna (Australia)
Toni Erdmann (Germany)
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