Oscar diversity? This time, first Cuban actress ever tapped for best-actress nomination | Opinion
The highly coveted Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday morning. Since Miami is the Cuban exile capital of the world, something of note happened as they read the nominees.
Actress Ana de Armas became the first Cuban-born female ever nominated in a top Oscar acting category for her role in the controversial movie “Blonde.” The brunette de Armas is nominated, of all things, for portraying one of the most iconic Americans of the 20th century, Marilyn Monroe.
“Blonde” proved polarizing. Not everyone appreciated de Armas’ homage to Monroe, but she did nail the tragic actress’ essence. It was her first significant role after her break-out performance in the first “Knives Out.”
De Armas, who moved from Cuba to Spain when she was 18 and then to Los Angeles, is not part of Miami’s Cuban-exile community, but she is one more indication that the members of the Academy did better this year in diversifying their nominee pool. Along with de Armas, Michelle Yeoh, from “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” was also nominated for best actress, becoming the first Malaysian actress ever selected. Nice.
The African-American star Angela Bassett was nominated for best supporting actress for her performance in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” She is also the first nominee from the Marvel movie universe.
And each of these actresses is fully deserving of their nominations. The push for more diversity at the Oscars is about broadening the Academy’s recognition of powerful performances that might otherwise be overlooked, not tokenism.
Since the outcries of #OscarsSoWhite of 2015 and 2016, the Academy has worked to diversify its membership by race, gender and nationality and, thus, its annual nominees.
In 2021, nine of the 20 acting nominations went to people of color. Last year, it was down to four. This time around is back up to seven actors of color were nominated. We praise the effort.
But the Academy is getting some pushback, deservedly so, for failing to nominate a single female director, even though three were eligible.
Remember, #OscarsSoMale, too.
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This story was originally published January 24, 2023 at 3:16 PM.