The 2015 Oscar nominations are the least diverse since 1998, and fans have responded on Twitter with the hashtag “#OscarsSoWhite.”

Selma Snubbed

The 2015 Oscar nominations were announced Thursday morning, with Birdman, The Imitation Game and Boyhood leading the pack. While many films were snubbed, the most egregious snubs are no doubt the lack of nominations for Selma.

Selma earned two nominations: one for Best Picture and the other for Best Original Song. While the Best Picture nomination is, no doubt, a big honor, many were upset to see that Selma director Ava DuVernay, who happens to be an African-American woman, was not nominated for her work. Also left off the list of Oscar nominees was David Oyelowo, who stars as Martin Luther King Jr. in the film. Adding insult to injury, all twenty nominees in the acting categories are white – something that hasn’t happened since 1998 – and there are no women nominated in any of the writing categories.

#OscarsSoWhite

People at home have responded to the Oscar nominations with the hashtag “#OscarsSoWhite.” The hashtag has been trending all day, and a large majority feature some outrage at DuVernay’s lack of recognition.

Putting the lack of diversity in perspective, the overwhelmingly white and male nominees reflect the demographic makeup of the Academy: 94% white, 76% male, with an average age of 63. When asked about the lack of diversity, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs – the first African-American female president – said she didn’t think the nominations reflected a larger problem.

“Not at all…The good news is that the wealth of talent is there, and it’s being discussed, and it’s helpful so much for talent – whether in front of the camera or behind the camera – to have this recognition, to have this period of time where there is a lot of publicity, a lot of chitter-chatter,” Isaacs said.

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