The Oscar nominations on Tuesday honored the largest ever crop of actors of colour along with a diverse range of stories, a year after Hollywood was slammed for excluding minority talent. The #OscarsSoWhite controversy last year was sparked when all 20 acting nominees were white for a second consecutive year. The hashtag highlighted a larger issue within the film industry, where talent and stories of diverse communities can be hard to get made or are not pushed for awards recognition. Although whimsical musical romance 'La La Land' led with a record-tying 14 nominations, 'Moonlight', about an impoverished black boy grappling with his sexuality, landed eight nods. The acting nods follow the success of 'Hidden Figures', about three black female mathematicians working for NASA in the 1960s.

Source: The Star January 25, 2017 16:11 UTC