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Snub of Black Performances in 2023 Oscar Nods Has Some Declaring #OscarsSoWhite Again

As films with Black leads and directors — “The Woman King,” “Till” and “Nope” — were shut out from the 2023 Oscar nominations, some are resurrecting the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.

“Twice as hard, half as far. The #OscarsSoWhite playing out like always for Danielle and Viola,” tweeted music critic Britt Julious, referring to Danielle Deadwyler of “Till” and Viola Davis of “The Woman King.” “Shameful,” she added.

The Times’ essayist Jamil Smith referred to the snubs as “#OscarsSoWhite, redux,” also noting the shut-out of Davis’ and Deadwyler’s films.

One user jokingly called the nominations list “Oscar So White 2.” (Though the real sequel came in 2016, the second straight year in which all acting nominations went to white performers.)

Others questioned the snub of “The Woman King” director Gina Prince-Bythewood and the film, “Nope,” which saw critically acclaimed performances from Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer and lauded directing and screenwriting from Jordan Peele.

Some begrudgingly pointed to the surprise lead actress nomination for Andrea Riseborough of “To Leslie.” The dark horse candidate had a litany of predominantly white Hollywood A-listers boosting her performance on her way to the nomination.

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Producer and diversity advocate Prasanna Ranganathan, who also noted the absence of woman directors from nominations, decried how “this allyship and amplification are rarely extended to racialized, queer and disabled people and often comes at their expense.”

Philadelphia Magazine editor Ernest Owens claimed that the push for Riseborough’s nomination came “at the expense of two Black actresses who’ve been critically acclaimed this entire season.” He called the campaign, “White privilege at its finest.”

Since the first Academy Awards in 1929, this is the 83rd time film academy voters did not nominate a Black actress for a lead performance; for Black actors, it’s the 74th lead-performance snub.

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2012 analysis by The Times found that Oscar voters at the time were nearly 94% Caucasian and 77% male.Black voters made up about 2% of the academy and Latinos, less than 2%. {snip}

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