#OscarsSoWhite: Oscar Nominations Spark Global Controversy

MOSCOW, January 16 (Sputnik), Ekaterina Blinova — The Oscar award nominations, announced on Thursday in Los Angeles, have been met with heavy criticism from Internet users, blasting the jury for the lack of diversity among nominations for actors and directors.

"With a mix of humor and disdain, commentary focused largely on the lack of diversity among nominations for actors and directors, and the focus on films that primarily concentrate on the experiences of white people," the Wall Street Journal reported.

Rather unexpectedly, "Selma," while heralded by cinema critics, was not nominated for the Best Director category, although Ava DuVernay's movie had earlier received a Golden Globe nomination. The biopic narrates the story of Martin Luther King's campaign for equal voting rights, in particular his epic march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. David Oyelowo, the African-American actor playing the role of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was "shut out" from the list of nominees as well, although the highly praised film was nominated in the Best Picture and the Best Song categories.

CNN points out that while other directing nominees were not berated for inaccuracies in their movies, "Selma" faced fierce criticism for its portrayal of President Lyndon B. Johnson.

"Ms. DuVernay, more than her peers, arguably needed that Oscar validation as a bargaining chip. I'm angry because one of the best films of the year has been libeled and that said libel apparently worked," stressed Forbes' Scott Mendelson, as cited by CNN.

The Daily Mirror notes that not much has changed in the 88 years of Academy Award history in terms of the ceremony's attitude to race: "Out of all the actor nominations ever (there have been 127), 118 have been for white actors. Only nine have been non-white. Three out of the six non-white women who have won an Oscar were cast as maids or slaves," the media outlet observed.

The #OscarsSoWhite hashtag went viral shortly after the nominations were announced. Twitter users are still enthusiastically discussing the lack of diversity among the Oscar nominations.