LOS ANGELES — The list of all-white nominations at next month's Academy Awards Ceremony is sparking outrage across the U.S., with prominent Hollywood figures such as director Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett Smith announcing they'll boycott the event in protest to the lack of black nominees.
For a second year in a row, no black performers made the list of Oscar acting nominees, prompting the revival of the 2015 Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.
According to Reuters, Lee said he had timed his announcement to coincide with the national holiday commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.
"How Is It Possible For The 2nd Consecutive Year All 20 Contenders Under The Actor Category Are White? And Let's Not Even Get Into The Other Branches," Reuters quoted Lee as writing on Instagram under the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag.
Pinkett Smith, whose husband Will Smith wasn't nominated for his role in the 2015 sports drama Concussion, announced she wouldn't attend or watch the ceremony in a video posted to Facebook. According to the Associated Press, the Gotham star called on people of color to disregard the Academy Awards.
In response to the criticism, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs explained that the Academy — which awards the Oscars — had made changes to diversify its membership, but those changes weren't coming fast enough.
"This isn't unprecedented for the Academy," Isaacs, an African American herself, said in statement posted to the Academy's official Twitter feed. "In the '60s and '70s it was about recruiting younger members to stay vital and relevant. In 2016, the mandate is inclusion in all of its facets: gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation."
The 88th Academy Awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, Feb. 28 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.
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