Some gains made, but calls for Oscar diversity continue

LOS ANGELES — It has been a few years since The Academy launched a major diversity initiative, and gains have been made, but some notable exclusions this year have many calling for more progress.

Guillermo del Toro has won a couple of Oscars and earned his first nomination more than 15 years ago.

Now he is back in the Oscar race again with “Pinocchio.”

“We wanted to create a movie about a puppet executed by using puppets to tell the tale,” he said.

A trip to an exhibit at MoMA marked a return to his roots. Del Toro got his start in Mexico before finding fame in the U.S.

But a veteran reporter says Latinos are still under-represented in Hollywood.

“We need our Wakanda. We Latinos need to have a movie where we are at the front and there’s not an immigration story or we’re the help,” host Alfonso Diaz said.

The National Board of Review Awards presented a good opportunity to talk with one of the winners about lingering racism.

“It’s systemic, it’s not just located here or just located there, ou have to look at how the micro-nuances are happening too, this is still something that has to be reckoned with,” said actress Danielle Deadwyler.

A reckoning definitely happened when Deadwyler was left off the list of Oscar nominees for her performance in “Till.”

A lobbying campaign on social media led to lesser-known work getting a nod in the Best Actress category, which in turn led to an investigation by the Academy.

“In all of this, we want a diverse slate of nominations, and that means many things. Small films, big films,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer. “We’d love to see more female directors.”

Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” had many thinking she’d get a nomination for directing, but she didn’t. And the contenders are once again all men.